


Escape the Woods

by SummerInAmsterdam



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Autumn, Based off of "Night in the Woods", Cults, Dreams and Nightmares, Eldritch, Emotional Hurt, Existential Angst, Existentialism, Festivals, Foreshadowing, Friendship, Gen, Halloween, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Old Friends, Party, Small Towns, Visions, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-19 07:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 58,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22773847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerInAmsterdam/pseuds/SummerInAmsterdam
Summary: College dropout, Joey Graceffa, returns home to the town of Everlock after two years. After spending so long away from his family, his friends, and his home, he's eager to return to his normal life. He soon realizes that a lot more has changed about the town than he would have expected - from the people to the town itself. He soon discovers something strange happening in town, and it's up to him and his friends to uncover whatever dark secret is hiding in the woods...
Comments: 102
Kudos: 30





	1. The Beginning of Everything

_Joey didn’t know how he got into this. He didn’t know how he and the others got separated. He didn’t know what they all did to deserve to see what they’d just seen._

_All he knew was he was running for his life through the woods. He needed to get away. Away from the people chasing after him and his friends. Away from the people he didn’t know, but whom apparently knew him. Away from the people who were trying to kill them._

_He tore through the woods, forcing air into his burning lungs as he sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him. He shoved branches out of his way, leapt over rogue roots, and pushed past shrubbery with reckless abandon. If he started to stumble over something, he wouldn’t let himself fall. He didn’t even know if he would be fast enough to get away, but he had to try._

_For a split second, Joey saw a silhouette of someone he couldn’t identify running along to his far left. Whoever or whatever it was, it wasn’t one of his friends. Joey immediately darted to the right and picked up the pace. He couldn’t afford to stop. He had to keep moving. He had to go faster. They were gaining on him._

_He’s been running on his own for a few minutes. Where did the others go?!_

_He frantically looked around for his friends. There was so much brush. Where were they?!_

_A silhouette that might have been Nikita was running through the trees far off to his left. Close beside Nikita, he could see Roi (Was it Roi? It was probably Roi) pulling another person (maybe Teala) along with him. They all disappeared into the brush as a pair of figures followed them. Jc, Colleen and Manny (at least, he was pretty sure that was Jc, Colleen and Manny) were running far off to the right for a brief second before he lost sight of them. Joey could hear Matt screaming at Rosanna and Safiya to run faster, but he couldn’t pinpoint where his voice was coming from._

_Joey only paid attention to his own surroundings when he was about to fall into a ditch. He skidded to a halt right as he was about to tumble over the edge. He couldn’t see anyone, not even the things chasing him. He bent over, his hands on his knees, desperately trying to catch his breath._

_What was he supposed to do now? Joey had no idea where he was, or where his friends were. He could keep running, but he didn’t know where to go._

_He just…_

_He didn’t know._

_He didn’t know anything!_ _  
_

_He didn’t know he didn’t know he didn’t know!_

_He lifted his head up. “Guys!” he screamed into the darkness. “Guys! Where the hell are you?!”_

_He knew his pursuers could probably hear him, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was to see his friends again._

_Finally, he saw a figure emerging from the trees several yards away. It wasn’t one of the bad guys. It was Colleen._

_Her voice screamed out Joey’s name, breaking from fear and exhaustion. He weakly yelled her name back to her. He lifted his arm up and reached out to her… just in time to hear the unmistakable sound of a gunshot._

_._

_.._

_..._

_And his dream ended._

Joey stepped off the last train to Everlock at around 10:40 at night. He took in the view of the platform and the train station itself, only to find nobody else was around.

 _Well, this is lovely_ , he thought to himself.

It wasn’t like he was expecting a Welcome Home party or anything. He wasn't expecting a limo driver with a sign that read “Joey Graceffa” to be standing on the platform or inside the station, or a bunch of balloons or a cake. But it would have been nice if _someone_ was there.

There was nobody else getting off the train, or even waiting on the platform. No sign of Dad, or his older sister, Nicole. No sign of _anyone_ , really. Joey was all alone on Platform 3, with no one except a crumpled up flyer, and a couple of squirrels by one of the poles for company.

“Welcome home, Joey,” he muttered on behalf of the immense amount of nobody around him.

Joey shrugged his duffle and backpack over his shoulders and made his way inside the train station. The rest of his stuff was already back in his family's house, so all he needed were those two carry-on items. He’d still had to take care of some things back at school before he came home, so Nicole went ahead and took some of his things back for him a few days ago.

It wasn’t a very big station, so it didn’t take him too long to get from the platform and back into the main lobby. On one of the walls was an advertisement for Everlock. All the trees were painted with autumn colors. A statue of the town founder or something stood in the center, and a train seemed to be flying behind it in midair. At the bottom of the picture was a banner that read “Welcome to the Historic Town of Everlock.”

“Huh…” he observed. “Everlock has never looked so… falsely advertised.”

The only historic thing Joey could think of that happened in Everlock was when the town was founded to begin with. It used to be a really prosperous mining town back in the day. Other than that, there wasn’t anything too particularly spectacular about it. Joey was born and raised in Everlock. His whole life was right there in that old place. Not much ever really happened.

But that was what he was counting on.

Thankfully, nothing spectacular would be happening at the train station of all places. Heck, he couldn’t even remember the dream he’d had on the train on the way there. He remembered being really scared of… something. But he couldn’t remember anything else about it.

Oh, well. He’d hardly ever remembered his dreams anyway. It must not have been important. Besides, he was tired of being scared. He’d rather not remember it if he didn’t have to.

He approached the exit, and saw someone drilling into the hinges of the door. The guy was probably a janitor or something. He had a bit of a five-o’clock shadow, and his red flannel made Joey think he’d fit right in chopping wood. If he weren’t so lanky, Joey would probably believe it if the guy said he was a lumberjack.

“Uh, hi, sir?,” Joey said to the lumberjanitor. “Where is everyone?”

The janitor didn’t turn around as he replied. “It’s 10:45, place is closed.”

“So… why are the lights and the TV on?”

“I get spooked when I’m here by my lonesome.”

Okay, fair. Joey could understand that.

“Mind if I squeeze past you?” Joey asked.

“Can’t,” the janitor said. “Just broke the damn thing.”

“Oh…” They both stood in awkward silence for a moment before Joey finally broke it. “Well... when do you think it might be done?”

“Hmmmm… right now.”

The janitor abruptly stopped drilling. He stuck his drill into his toolbox, picked the box up and headed out the door.

“You have a good night, now,” the janitor told Joey as he walked off.

“Goodnight to you, too,” Joey said quietly

He shrugged his bags again and made his way outside. The janitor was already gone in the ten seconds it had taken Joey to come outside.

“Huh, weird,” Joey muttered.

He glanced around the outside of the station. He was all the way at the edge of town, and his family was nowhere to be found. It would have been cool if he could call someone, but his phone had died at some point while he was sleeping on the train.

Joey sighed. “Welp… guess I’m walking. Alone.”

As he started off, he could hear a train leaving the station, probably the one he just got off of. That was a sound he’d heard every night as a kid, during the winter when the leaves were down. The sound of the whistle and the locomotive chugging along the tracks were never really enough to keep him awake, but he did have quite a few dreams about being a conductor.

Joey gestured to the trees by the station. “And here, we have the woods. Through the woods is home, my room, my bed, and my negligent family. Am I talking to myself again? Yeah, yeah, I am.”

That’s been a habit of Joey’s ever since he was a kid. Whenever he was alone, he’d usually talk to himself to fill the space with some kind of ambiance. Even if the ambiance was coming from him, it helped him keep himself focused and distract him from the fact that he was alone. It might have been kind of like what the janitor did with the lights and TV.

He made his way down a path through the woods, taking in all the brush and the sounds the animals made. Most of the trees still had plenty of leaves, but some of them had already started turning colors. It was too dark to get a good look, but Joey imagined they would be a beautiful combination of reds, yellows and golds. It was a nice reminder that fall was just starting again.

He remembered when he and his friends were all in elementary school or so, and they’d spent autumn nights exploring the woods on one of Safiya’s impromptu “ghost hunts.” Joey and Colleen would be glued to each other pretty much the entire time. Manny would be acting as one of the group’s bodyguards, but he was just as scared as the rest of them. Teala and Rosanna would be clutching onto each other, jumping at every sound. Roi would always immediately assume the noises they’d heard was Bigfoot or a ghost, but Jc or Matt would point out that it was probably just an animal. It would usually turn out to be Nikita, who would occasionally hide in the bushes, then jump out and scare everyone. They’d keep getting spooked by an owl hooting in the distance, or a squirrel snapping a twig, until they'd run back to the very-much visable playground where their parents were all waiting.

Speaking of the playground, he could see it as he was starting to exit the woods. The closer he got to the playground, the more rundown he realized it was. The swingset was so rusted over that it looked like it could fall apart at any moment. The seesaw was covered in dirt and spiderwebs. The jungle gym was overgrown with vines and weeds. There was a playground climber complete with monkey bars, and a wooden bridge with some stairs at the end that led up to a swirly slide.

“Wow… all these years really took a lot out of this place,” Joey observed.

It had been almost ten years since Joey had set foot on the playground, but it closed five years ago. He remembered how sad he was when he’d first found out. He’d spent countless summer afternoons playing here as a kid, and it looked so lonely now.

He walked up to the climber and made his way up the stairs. He could just barely fit between the bars bordering the path. The bridge creaked as he crossed it and made his way to the platform that the slide was attached to. It was the highest point of the platform, and it gave him a good view of the old playground. He dropped his duffle on the ground, shrugged off his backpack and let it fall beside the duffle. He leaned forward against a bar above the entrance to the slide, putting all his weight on it.

“Hey, there, Everlock. I’m back.”

It had only been two years since he’d lived in Everlock. He hadn’t really checked in on anyone or anything at home since a little while after he’d left for college. He wondered how much this place could have changed since then.

All of a sudden, he heard a couple of _clinks!_ And then the _clinks!_ turned into _CLANKS!_ and the slide started to fall from the hinges.

“Oh, _bitch!_ ” Joey exclaimed instinctively.

He flailed his arms around, grabbing hold of the bar again. The platform was coming down underneath his weight really quickly. He had to act fast, or he’d come down with it!

He ducked down, and swung himself under the bar and onto the slide. He shot straight back up, just barely managing to keep his balance. The slide started to come down as he took a few swift steps forward. He launched himself into the air, letting out a scream as the slide came down. He fell to the ground and stumbled over as he landed.

Joey, still on his knees, turned around to assess the damage. The slide was now fully on the ground, along with the platform that it was originally attached to.

“Oh, my God!” Joey exclaimed in a shock. "That was dangerous! I could have just died!" He raised his fists straight up in the air. “That was amazing!”

 _Man,_ that was a rush! That was awesome!

The sudden sound of a police siren startled him out of his adrenaline high. He hastily scrambled to his feet and whirled around. Sure enough, a police cruiser was parked on the curb nearest to the playground.

“Dammit!” he cursed himself.

The officer stepped out of the cruiser and said, “Joey Graceffa? Is that you?”

Joey sighed. “Hey, officer Patrick.”

He’d recognize that voice anywhere. That was definitely Matt’s dad, one of the best police officers in the town of Everlock. Also, one of the _only_ police officers in Everlock. Luckily for Joey, he was more of a good cop. Unluckily for Joey, he’d just caught him probably breaking the law.

“What are you doing all the way out here?” Officer Patrick asked.

“I just came from the train station and my family forgot me,” Joey replied jokingly. Then he realized now probably wasn't the time for jokes. “I was just cutting through the woods to get home and I wanted to see the playground again. What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was out patrolling and I noticed someone with a couple of suspicious looking bags trespassing in this very off-limits playground.”

“Ah.”

Figures. His first night back in Everlock, and he was already in trouble with the law.

Joey kicked a pebble on the ground. “Soooooo… am I under arrest?” he asked sheepishly.

Officer Patrick grinned and shrugged. “If it were anyone else, you probably _would_ be. But considering my son thought you were cool for the past twelve years or so, I’ll let this one slide.” He motioned to the cruiser. “Alright, son. Why don’t you just get in the car? If you’re trying to get back to your place, I can drive you.”

“Wait, really?”

“This place was scheduled for demolition in a few days anyway. Go and grab your stuff, son.”

Officer Patrick truly was a cop, in the fact that he’d pretty much addressed everyone by the name, “son.” Joey did as he said, dropped his bags in the back, and climbed in. At least he wouldn’t have to spend his first night home in jail.

Joey didn’t really feel like talking about his experience at school, so he just gave Officer Patrick a bunch of simple answers to his questions. “Classes were hard, but not too bad.” “My roommate was decent, but we weren’t really close.” “It wasn’t really where I felt like I should be.”

To keep the officer busy, he asked about Matt instead. According to Officer Patrick, Matt was doing great at school (of course he was). He was excelling in his classes, and he was really enjoying Duke’s theatre program. Joey was glad to hear at least _one_ of his friends was enjoying college when he couldn’t.

Finally, they were back at Joey’s family’s house.

“Thanks for the ride, Officer,” Joey told him as he unbucked his seatbelt.

“Anytime, son. Y’know, Matt’s coming home for Labor Day weekend early tomorrow morning. I’m sure he’d be happy to see you.”

“Oh, really? Cool!”

That was right. Joey had come home on a Friday, and tomorrow would be the first day of Labor Day Weekend. A lot of people would probably be coming home, including Joey’s other friends who were at college. In fact, he’d received a couple of texts from Manny and Nikita earlier that day that they’d just gotten home. After a bit of convincing (hardly any at all), they got him to come out into town to see the rest of their old friends tomorrow.

“You have a safe night, Joey,” Officer Patrick told him as he climbed out of the cruiser. Then he joked, “And no more trespassing on demolition sights!”

“I'll keep that in mind, Officer. And tell Matt I said hi!”

“Will do!”

Joey fished his stuff out of the back seats of the car, and he made his way up the driveway as Officer Patrick drove off into the night. As he trudged up to the front porch, he thought about Matt, Jc, Teala and everyone else he used to know. He hadn’t talked to any of them in so long. He didn’t even know if they’d count as friends after so many months of silence, which made him a little sad.

He recounted the last conversations he had with the others in his head, if they could even _count_ as conversations. He was pretty sure he did an okay job of keeping in touch with Manny and Nikita, but he'd hardly answered them back. Rosanna texted him almost once a week just to wish him a good week moving forward, which was always welcome. Roi texted once every few weeks, but it was still nice to hear from him. Jc and Teala both tried to call him a few weeks ago. Same with Matt and Safiya. Joey hadn’t heard from Colleen since about six or seven months ago, around Christmas, maybe.

They’d all reached out to him, but he hardly reached back out, if at all. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to talk to them, he just…

Whatever.

Who knows? Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he was worried it would be.

Joey finally reached the front door. He knew there was a spare key in his mom’s old little rabbit statue, but he didn’t need that. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his house key, which had pretty much been tucked away in there all day. He stuck it in the lock and opened the front door.

The first thing he noticed was the smell of his house. Houses always seemed to have some kind of paint-like smell, especially when you first step foot in them after almost two years. In Joey’s opinion, no house smelled more like a house in the hous-tory of houses. 

Joey could hear the TV in the living room, which could only mean one thing: Dad was watching TV. Joey huffed and strolled across the kitchen and into the living room. As he’d suspected, Dad was asleep on the couch. He’d apparently been watching that dumb talk show, _Garbo and Malloy._ It was pretty much just two weird guys talking about things that probably didn’t matter, and making stupid one liners.

Good to know Dad was being so considerate of his son.

Joey crosses his arms and stared at his dad. “ _Ahem!_ Remember me, sir?”

Surprisingly, his dad took it really well, and screamed and flailed his arms as he woke up.

“Joey?” Dad asked groggily, and he put a hand over his heart. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“ _Good!_ ” Joey exclaimed, spreading his arms out.

“What are you doing here?!”

_Seriously?_

Joey didn’t say anything. He just stared at his dad and hoped that would be enough of an answer.

Dad’s eyes widened. He gasped a bit. He got it.

“ _Ohhhhhhhhhh!_ ” Dad exclaimed, and there it was.

“ _Ohhhhhhhhhh!_ ” Joey mocked. “Yeah! Remember me? Your _son?_ Who you _abandoned_ in the middle of nowhere to fend for himself?!” He made sure to use the most dramatic tone possible, putting a hand over his heart, and the back of his other hand to his forehead.

“Joey, I’m so sorry! We thought you were coming home _tomorrow_ night!”

“Well, ya thought wrong,” Joey told him.

“How’d you get here?”

“I walked until I got caught by Officer Matt's-Father. Is my bed still upstairs, or are we waiting for _that_ to come tomorrow night, too?”

Dad chuckled and stood up. “So good to hear that voice again.”

Joey sighed, but it was more of a content sigh than an annoyed sigh. Dad wrapped Joey up in a big old dad hug. It was the first dad hug Joey had had in a long time. If he was being honest, Joey was glad to hear Dad’s voice, too. It was _really_ good to see him again. Maybe he and his dad were on the rocks a bit when Joey was a kid, but by the time he was in eighth grade, Dad was his number one fan.

Once Dad finally let go, he asked, “Wanna watch some _Garbo and Malloy_ with me?”

“Nah,” Joey said. “As much as I'd love to listen to my cells die, I kinda want to hit the sack.”

“Another night, then?”

“Sure, it’ll just be a half hour of my life I’ll never get back.”

“I’ll be holding you to it, young man.”

“Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh!” Joey called as he walked out of the living room.

He half expected Nicole to materialize in the kitchen, but she must have already been asleep. It was too bad he didn’t get to say hi to her yet. Oh, well, they’d probably see each other in the morning.

Joey walked up the stairs and into the hallway, then up another flight up stairs. When he was thirteen, he’d begged Dad to let him move his room up to the attic. It took a lot of convincing - and some renovations - but Joey got his wish. Fortunately for the house, there was a second attic in the guest room.

The room itself was designed in a triangular prism, but it didn’t quite look like an attic anymore. The wood that used to line up the walls were plastered over, and painted a deep teal with a white ceiling, and white window sills at the end of the attic. His bed was wedged in the far left corner, right next to the window. The walls were lined with all kinds of stuff from Joey’s past. He saw his high school diploma, posters of bands he used to like, and photos of himself, his family and his friends.

He wandered around his room, studying the photos. He saw a picture of himself, Nicole and Dad after Joey's high school graduation ceremony. Others were photos he'd taken of or with his friends. One was of Joey, Nikita and Manny, and the former was proudly displaying a volleyball trophy. Another was a photo of Matt, Rosanna, Safiya and Colleen that they'd taken at a theatre competition trip and sent to the rest of their friends. A picture of Jc, Roi and Teala posing in front of a cross country finish line that Roi had been the first to cross was another one of Joey's favorites.

The photo that caught his eye the most was the one Joey had taped above his desk. It was taken at Rosanna’s birthday/graduation party just a couple of days after they'd finished high school. They were all wearing swimsuits, and everyone’s hair was soaking wet and matted to their heads from swimming in Rosanna’s pool. They were all smiling, a few of them looking like they were mid-laughter, glistening from left over droplets reflecting from the early summer sun. Joey chuckled at the memory of what happened immediately after that photo was taken: They’d picked up the birthday girl and threw her into the pool, only to have her pop out of the water laughing her ass off as the rest of them jumped in with her. That was easily one of Joey’s happiest memories.

Joey smiled longingly. _God,_ _I missed those dorks._

The ten of them had been friends for years, and they were easily nine of Joey’s favorite people in the world for most of his life. Maybe he’d known some longer than others, but they were always there for him no matter what.

He finally pried his eyes away from his cherished memories, and turned to his bed. Man, he missed that puppy, too. He was exhausted. He dumped both of his bags on the floor. He was too tired to start unpacking right now. And anyway, it was almost midnight.

He quickly got ready for bed, and collapsed onto the mattress. He had no idea how good it would feel to finally sleep in his own bed after so long. He had no idea how much he’d love being back in his own house again. He had no idea how glad he’d be to finally be back home in Everlock.

Maybe now things would be okay...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _WOOOOO THIS HAS BEEN A LONG TIME IN THE MAKING FRIENDOS_  
> 
> 
> I'm having so much fun writing this story so far! "Night in the Woods" is easily one of my favorite games of all time! It feels especially appropriate to play/watch playthroughs of it during the cold months. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you guys think of this! I hope you all enjoy! :)
> 
> (on another note, I really need to learn how to manage my projects lol)
> 
> Next Time: Joey meets up with some of his old friends, and gets to see how much things have changed.


	2. Home Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On today's episode of "For Crying Out Loud Woman, Keep Track of Your Dang Projects!"...
> 
> Also, in case anyone's interested, I made a playlist for this story! I'll let you guys know which song I used for which parts along the way. It's totally optional, but feel free to listen to the songs while you read if you want :)  
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3xDpMrUrRWLI9R2oLY8qu4?si=SrrHEw8sSLK-xQ-Ns7ARfw
> 
> "Santa Monica Dream" - Played while Joey, Manny and Nikita are walking through town.  
> "People Change" - Played in The Grounds.

The smell of pancakes stirred Joey out of his dream before he opened his eyes the next morning. For a moment, he thought he was back in his room at school. There was usually some kind of smell traveling through the vents - be it food, some kind of soap, or… recreational herbs. He had to open his eyes and look around to remember where he was.

He pushed himself up groggily and stretched out his arms. It felt weird waking up in his own room, in his own bed. It wasn’t really a bad kind of weird, though. It was more like a familiar kind of weird. A kind of feeling that he was used to this a long time ago, and he was finally back. He was so used to waking up alone in his old room in his campus apartment - he and his roommate each had their own bedrooms. It was always the same familiar setting, haunting him every morning as he woke up only to remain there for as long as he could. Now that he was home, he felt more secure. Safer. Like everything was fine.

He pushed himself out of bed, took a shower and got dressed. As he walked down the stairs to the kitchen, he saw a picture of him, Dad and Nicole that they took when she graduated college. Joey was so cute then. They were _all_ so cute back then. Cuties, the lot of ‘em!

“We could’ve started a travelling show,” Joey figured. “The Cute Graceffas!”

He kept going down the stairs. If the smell was any hint, he knew who he’d find in the kitchen. And he was right.

Standing at the stove was Nicole. She was still in her pajamas, and her strawberry blonde hair was tied up in a loose ponytail. She’d always been one of the best chefs Joey had ever known. Whenever the house smelled like something delicious, that was how you knew she was there.

She turned around when she heard him coming down the stairs. “Joey!”

Joey’s eyes lit up as he saw his sister. “Hey, Nicole!”

Nicole set down her spatula as Joey entered the kitchen. She spread out her arms and pulled Joey in for a hug. Nicole had been one of his favorite people in the world for pretty much his entire life. When they were little, Joey looked up to her so much, and he wanted to be just like her. Much to her annoyance, he’d sometimes wear dresses and play with dolls like she did. He didn’t do that anymore, but his love and respect for his sister was still very much there.

Joey, Dad and Nicole. They were all that was left of his little family after his Mom left. As far as Joey was concerned, the two of them were the best family he could have asked for.

He still wasn't quite sure why she'd moved back, though. A few months ago, she was living in Sacramento. Now she was here. He tried not to worry too much about it. He was mostly just glad to see his best friend/sister again.

“Welcome home, Joey!” Nicole said as their hug broke apart.

“It’s so good to see you again, shorty,” Joey said.

“I’m not short! I’m average height and you’re not!”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Nicole could say she was “average height” all she wanted, but she had to stand on her tiptoes to be able to wrap her arms around his neck, and she could barely do that. And the girl seriously wanted to be center on the girl’s basketball team when she was in high school!

Joey put his hands on his hips. “Thanks for forgetting me last night, by the by!” He made a _tsk-tsk_ sound and shook his head.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “It was just such short notice.”

“It’s okay. I’m just glad to be home.”

Nicole’s smile faltered. “Joey, is everything okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did something happen at school?”

Joey figured she’d ask that question. He wasn’t really in the mood to have that conversation just yet, though. Especially not after just getting home.

“I just needed to come back,” Joey said.

Nicole nodded, but she still seemed concerned. “Well, I think you can understand my worry. I mean, that’s not usually something a college sophomore just up and does. You can tell me if something happened.”

“Nicole, I’m fine, really. I don’t want you to worry, okay? Can we talk about this later?”

“Sure, bud. I understand.”

Cool. Nicole could be a little pushy at times, but he was glad she was willing to give him some space on the subject this time around.

“I bet your old friends are back in town for Labor Day,” Nicole said. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you!”

“Yeah! Manny and Nikita should be picking me up soon, actually.”

“Y’know, I usually see Jc and Teala when I go into town. They’re working at this cute new coffee place called ‘The Grounds.’”

Joey cocked his head. “We have a new coffee shop?”

There had only ever been two coffee shops in Everlock as far as Joey could remember: A Starbucks at the Towne Centre, and a Dunkin’ Donuts out by the highway.

“Yeah,” Nicole replied. “It’s got a really homey vibe to it. Always quiet and chill.”

“Sounds appropriate for Jc, at least,” Joey said.

“Yeah. I usually see them when I stop in for a coffee on my way to work. The three of you should go say hi.”

That sounded good to Joey. He’d missed them. It would be nice to see them again.

“Where are these ‘Grounds?’” Joey asked.

“It’s near Towne Centre,” Nicole replied with a gesture in that direction, “right next to the Snack Falcon.”

“We have a Snack Falcon now?”

“Yep, near the general store. It’s pretty handy now that the Food Donky went out.”

Joys was surprised to hear that. “The Food Donkey is gone?!”

“Yep. Going on almost a year now.”

“Where does everyone shop?”

“Everyone goes out to the Ham Panther nowadays. Dad works there, as of a couple months ago.”

Joey put his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Damn… The Food Donkey’s gone. We have a Snack Falcon, _and_ a new coffee shop.”

“It’s a whole new world.”

It really was. Joey didn’t know why he was so surprised that so much happened while he was gone. It was almost like he’d thought the world would just stop turning now that he hadn’t been around to see it.

“I’m gonna head out, I think,” Joey told her, starting to walk off.

“Wait!” Nicole cried. “At least eat first!”

Joey groaned dramatically. “ _Fine!_ If I _must._ ” He grabbed a pancake off the stack and stuffed it into his mouth. “Mkphay, mbye Nmphole!” he said with his mouth full.

Nicole laughed. “Have a good day, love you!”

“Love you too!” Joey called back. He grabbed his jacket from a rack in the entryway and headed outside.

It seemed like Joey’s neighborhood hadn’t changed too much since he’d been gone, which was kind of a relief. All the same houses were there, and all the residents still seemed to be there, too. People were walking their dogs, and kids were playing in the yards. Joey had been right about the leaves last night - they were already starting to turn from green to yellow and orange.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out to see a message from Manny.

**Record Producer:** turn to the left a little bit honey

He did what his phone said, and his day instantly got ten thousand times better! He saw the two of them walking up the road to his house. There was a girl in a pink dress and a leather jacket, donning a blonde wig. Next to her was a tall guy with a broad physique, sporting a green jacket over a black shirt. He was waving at Joey with his phone in his hand.

Manny and Nikita! Two of his best friends in the entire world!

“Guys!” Joey called out to them.

“Look who it is!” Manny exclaimed.

“Hey, bitch!” Nikita called out.

The three of them rushed to each other and met right at the end of the driveway. They wrapped each other up in a tight group hug, but Manny was doing most of the squeezing.

Manny and Nikita had been Joey’s ride-or-die bitches since kindergarten. He’d technically known Manny about fifteen or so minutes longer than he knew Nikita. He and Manny had been those crybaby kids who would start crying as soon as their moms dropped them off and left. They’d ended up being partners during “morning time,” and they’d comforted each other because they missed their moms. A couple of other kids made fun of them until Nikita came into the picture. She told them off as hard as a five-year-old could tell someone off, and she ended up making the _bullies_ cry. She’d gotten a scolding from the teacher, but from that moment on, the three of them were inseparable. It ended up as a kind of reverse Harry-and-Ron-saving-Hermoine deal. The three of them were morning buddies together for the rest of kindergarten, and their friendship hadn’t faltered since.

Their hug finally broke apart into a trio of smiling faces.

“This is crazy!” Joey exclaimed. “I missed you guys so much!”

“We missed you too, girl!” Manny yelled.

“‘Bout time we saw your ass again!” Nikita added happily.  
Sure, he’d done his best to stay in touch with them, but it was kind of sparingly. He’d maybe respond to their texts once every so often, when he had the energy to do so.

But he wasn’t gonna think about that right now. Everything about today was going to be normal. He was just gonna have a normal day in normal Everlock with his normal friends.

“So, is it true?” Manny asked Joey. “You really dropped out?”

Joey nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“So, like, you just don’t go back?”  
“Pretty much.”

“Lucky,” Nikita said, shaking her head. “Manny and I still have, like, another couple years before we’re done.”

She and Manny were both going to a fashion/design school up in New York. They both wanted to work in makeup, and it was a job that Joey could totally see them taking up. Just a look at their faces could tell you that much. Their perfectly toned foundations and flawless eyeliners had Joey feeling a little naked, since he mostly just worked around his face a bit and called it a day.

“So, homecomer,” Nikita said, “anything you wanna do today?”

Joey didn’t have to think too hard. “Nicole told me Jc and Teala work at this place called ‘The Grounds.’ Why don’t we head over and see them?”  
Manny smiled. “Aww, that place is so cute!”

“You guys have been there?”

“Yeah,” Nikita replied. “It opened this past summer. Those two jumped in to work there, like, immediately.”

“Oh, cool! Nicole said it was near Towny Centry, right?” Joey and his friends liked to make fun of the _e's_ that were written at the end of “Towne Centre,” instead of it being spelled normally.

“You are correct sir,” Manny confirmed. “Come on, we’ll show you where it is.”

And with that, the three of them headed on their way. They’d barely gotten out of Joey’s neighborhood before they saw a group of construction workers fixing the road ahead of them. It wouldn’t be Fall in Everlock without loads of construction. All the road work was usually crammed in before winter around that time of year. It made about half the town inaccessible unless you wanted to take the long way around, which it looked like the three of them were going to have to do.

Nikita huffed. “What kind of weather are these bitches preparing for?”

Manny shrugged. “Probably weather like that blizzard from years ago?”

“But that hasn’t happened in, like, ten years,” Joey pointed out.

He was about nine or ten when the blizzard hit, but Joey remembered it very well. School had already been called off for a few days in preparation for a snowstorm, so Colleen had invited their friend group to her place to be “snowed in.” They’d planned for it to just be a sleepover as the snow fell, but the name had turned literal really quickly. 

What the town had anticipated to be a normal snowfall turned everything within a ten mile radius of Everlock into a snowglobe. Some of the powerlines had been knocked down, and the roads were completely frozen over. At least three feet of snow had been reported to have covered the ground.

The ten kids had been pretty much stuck in the Ballinger home for five days; the storm froze the doors shut, and the roads were too dangerous for their parents to come pick them up. They would watch from the windows of the Ballinger home as the world around them went into an almost whiteout. Colleen’s parents were so kind to them, and treated them like they were their own kids throughout their time there. They were even fortunate enough to not be affected by the apparent blackouts that were happening around parts of town, other than the occasional flickering lights. Even so, they were all just kids. They had still believed there were ghosts (and probably Bigfoot) hiding in the woods. For them, it had been the end of the world.

It was the first time any of them had seen Jc worried about anything. Teala had cried because she was sure she’d never see her parents again. Rosanna would scream every time the lights threatened to go out, and run into Matt’s or Safiya’s arms. Manny and Nikita kept close together at all times, afraid they would lose each other. Roi was constantly worried about how his mom was holding up because she was still pregnant with his baby sister. Joey couldn’t stop thinking about whether or not his family was alright. Colleen had kept asking her mom and dad if they were really, _really_ going to be okay.

It wasn’t until a couple of days after the storm stopped that the roads had been cleared out. Joey and his friends were able to go home the day after that, but there would be extra snow, sleet, ice and just plain nasty slush to deal with for weeks. The town survived, and the ice had eventually thawed, but not without taking a good chunk of the streets and parts of some houses and businesses with it.

Looking back on it, Joey could see why the construction dudes were working so hard.

“That wasn’t a very fun sleepover,” Nikita said as she watched someone with a jackhammer. She must have been thinking about the same thing.

“No, it was not,” Joey confirmed.

The three of them turned onto a sidewalk and started another route to the shop. A group of three boys ran in the direction of Joey and the others. They looked about ten or so. They almost knocked the trio over, running right through them.

“Kill! Kill!” one of the boys yelled.

“FBI! Freeze!” another shouted.

“Pew! Pew! Pew!” the third one exclaimed.

Joey, Nikita and Manny stumbled a little as the boys ran through their group and down the sidewalk. Literally, pay more attention to your kids!

“Woah!” Manny yelped as he caught himself. “Watch where you’re going!”

Joey noticed something about the boys as he regained his balance. “Were those the Harley kids?”

Nikita straightened her wig and sighed in annoyance. “Yep. I used to babysit those little shits sometimes,” she said.

“Little shits?” Joey repeated. “They seemed so nice when I last saw them.” Then again, the last time Joey saw the Harleys was when they were eight.

“They steal things,” Nikita explained. “Like, a lot.”

Wow. Those kids always seemed so nice. Maybe that was how they fooled people.

“I bet they learned from you,” Joey joked, jabbing his finger at Nikita.

Manny put his hands on his hips. “Yeah, I’m a little suspicious, ma’am.”

Nikita feigned shock and placed a hand over her heart. “These _allegations!_ Joseph Graceffa and Manuel Gutirez, my two best friends in the world! Accusing me of being a-” She instantly dropped the charade. “Yeah, they probably did.”

The three of them laughed and moved along. They came to a hill where a few adults lived, including their old astronomy teacher, Calliope Caraway. Speaking of Ms. Caraway, she was sitting in a rocking chair and reading a book on her front porch as the three of them approached her house.

Joey always thought it was so weird seeing his teachers out in public. It was like he was seeing a whole other person. Whenever that happened, he’d always felt an urge to sprint in the opposite direction, Roadrunner style. Calliope was different, though. So was their history teacher, Mortimer Wilson. When those two were in public, Joey was chill about it. They were two of his favorite teachers, even if he hated school itself. They made their subjects interesting, and seemed to like teaching the students, which Joey appreciated. Even better, they both insisted that the students call them by their first names.

Still, Joey had to admit, it was a little strange seeing her in casual attire. Her wavy black hair was tied back in a messy bun, and she was wearing leggings and a sweatshirt. She even had reading glasses on, which she never wore to school. He was always so used to seeing her in some kind of teaching outfit or something. It was kinda weird seeing a teacher basically in pajamas.

Manny waved to her and called, “Hey, Calliope!” when they were close enough.

Calliope looked up from her book and smiled at them as they came to a stop. “Oh! Hello there, Manny, Joey, Nikita. Nice to see my three best worst students.”

Joey snickered. “Yeah. We liked the constellations. Hated school, though.”

“Hey!” She furrowed a brow at them, but didn’t stop smiling. “Don’t knock school. School is vital for your future! What are you all doing home?”

“I dropped out of school,” Joey said.

“Ah, I see.” Calliope blushed a little bit.

“Not us,” Nikita said, pointing at herself and Manny. “We’re just on break for the weekend.”

Calliope nodded. “Well, if any of you ever feel like looking at the constellations, feel free to drop by. Mortimer ordered a telescope recently, and we should have it set up pretty soon.”

“Mortimer?” Joey repeated.

“We?” Nikita added.

“Oh, right! You all were away for awhile. He proposed to me this past August, and he’s recently moved in with me.”

Joey gasped. “Oh, my God!” he exclaimed.

“No way!” Manny gushed with a wide smile.

Nikita’s hands flew to her mouth. “I _knew_ it!” she squealed.

Calliope hid her laugh behind her hand. “Yes, yes, I remember what you all thought about us.”

Joey couldn’t believe it! He remembered that he and half of the high school student body would go around saying _“Duh! Those two like each other!”_ He was so happy for the two of them finally deciding to tie the knot!

“Congratulations, you guys!” Joey told Calliope.

“Thank you!” Calliope replied. “And like I said, feel free to stop by anytime any of you want to take a look at the stars.” She pointed up to the sky. That was a bit of a trademark for Calliope.

“Will do,” Joey promised.

Even if Joey wasn’t crazy about school itself, that didn’t mean he didn’t want to learn about things anymore. And stars were pretty high up on his list.

A few houses away was a system of tunnels that had an exit straight into Towne Centre. The tunnels apparently used to be a trolley service for the miners, long before Joey was born. After the mines closed, there was no more use for it. The town kept it because of its historical significance - there was a vast mural painted on one of the walls in memory of the miners. After a flood that happened about four years ago, the water made a home for itself in the gap between the platforms. It’s officially become an underground river - you even see the occasional fish sometimes.

“I see the river’s still here,” Joey observed. “That’s one thing here that hasn’t changed.”

“That’s not the only thing that’s still down here,” Nikita said, and pointed ahead of them to the “Trolleyside News” stand.

As well as a newstand, it served pretzels and pierogies. It was an old stand, but Joey had always loved those pretzels. It’s owner, a man named Robert, wasn’t exactly the nicest guy in the world, though. He always had pretty much an entire bag of chips on his shoulder, as far as Joey saw. He wasn’t in the mood for chips, but he was down for a pretzel. That was something salty from that stand that he could actually go for.

The trio didn’t even have to say anything when they approached the stand.

“Hey,” Robert said in his kind of rough sounding voice. He was frying a pierogi. “Ain’t you kids from here?”

“Hello,” Joey said. “And yeah, we’ve just been at school.”

“Yeah, I remember you.” Robert pointed at them one by one, butchering their names. “Uh… John, Marty, and-” he suddenly scowled and jabbed a finger in Nikita’s direction. “ _Thief!_ ”

Nikita rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on! That was forever ago!”

Back in sixth grade, Nikita would usually steal pretzels from that place while she walked home from school. She normally took one or two so Robert wouldn’t notice any went missing. When Robert caught her, he tried to have her arrested, but the police had bigger problems than a kid stealing pretzels. They’d let her off with a warning, much to Robert’s annoyance. To this day, he had a grudge against her.

“Once a thief, always a thief!” Robert said. “It’s a miracle you’re in school instead a’ jail!”

Okay, sure, Nikita may have had a history of causing trouble, but she wasn’t a bad person. Joey knew that for a fact. Robert didn’t know anything about Nikita! She’d worked her ass off to get into college, just like anyone else would. And she certainly didn’t deserve to be in jail!

Joey put her hands on his hips. “You know what? This place isn’t even a restaurant!”

Manny jumped in. “Seriously! It’s just a crappy food stand in a hole!”

Nikita smiled at them gratefully.

“This establishment has been in business for fifty years!” Robert retorted.

“Fifty _crappy_ years in a hole!” Joey corrected him. “Y’know what else has been in a hole for fifty years? Dead people from the seventies!”

Manny and Nikita burst out laughing.

Robert threw up his hands and groaned. “No respect! No respect, these kids!”

Nikita stepped between Manny and Joey and crossed her arms. “Whatever. You can keep your shitty hole pretzels and your damp perogies.”

“Yeah, yeah. Go jump in the river.”

“And mess up my wig? Thanks for the offer, but we’ve got better things to do.” Nikita looped her arms through the boys’, and they walked off. Once they were out of earshot, she said, “Some people just can’t let go of the past, can they?”

“ _Weeell,_ ” Joey said in a high-pitched voice, “to be fair, you _did_ eventually get caught.”

She shrugged. “It’s not my fault he can’t pay more attention to his merchandise.”

Manny knit his eyebrows. “‘Can’t?’ Like, present tense?”

Joey smirked. “You stole a pretzel didn’t you?”

Nikita grinned mischievously. “Bold of you to assume I only took _one._ ” She unhooked her arms, reached into her purse and pulled out not one, but three pretzels - one for each of them.

“Oh, hell yeah!” Manny cheered.

“Robin Hood strikes again!” Joey chirped.

So _that_ was why she wasn’t sassing the guy as much as usual! Joey and Manny each took a pretzel.

“Oh, man! I missed these!” Joey exclaimed as he took a bite. “Delicious pretzels…” he muttered.

“You’re welcome,” Nikita told them.

They saw a trio of high schoolers hanging out by the mural as they were about to exit the tunnels. Joey kinda recognized their faces, but he didn’t know any of their names. They might have been freshmen when Joey and his friends were seniors.

One of the teens had short green hair and a baggy hoodie. “Oh, hey. You guys are… Joey, Manny and Nikita, right?”

Well, at least _these_ guys remembered their names.

“Yep,” Manny replied. “What were your names again?”

“Riley,” the green-haired one said.

“Names Nori,” said a girl with a half shaved head.

The third was a boy wearing a shirt for a metal band. “Eric.”

Riley looked Joey and his friends up and down. “You guys graduated a couple years ago, didn’t you?” they asked.

“Got that right,” Nikita said. “Thank God.”

“Cool that people still hang out down here,” Joey said. “We used to do that when we were still in high school.”

“Yeah,” Eric said in a monotone voice.

“We weren’t in high school that long ago, y’know.”

“That’s nice.”

_Well… this is awkward…_

“How old are you?” Nori asked.

“Twenty,” Manny said, pointing at himself. He gestured to Joey and Nikita and said, “These two are nineteen.”

“So you can’t buy beer?” Nori asked, taking a swig from a can of soda.

“No,” Joey replied.

“Do you have a car?” Riley asked.

“...No.”

“Hm.” Riley brushed their bangs from their face. “Sucks.”

Well, this conversation obviously wasn’t going anywhere.

“Yo,” Nikita said to Manny and Joey. “Coffee.”

Joey and his friends bid their goodbyes and went back on their way. He couldn’t help but feel a little weird after that conversation. Even though he was basically an adult, he still felt like a teenager. What even was his usefulness in society at his age? He had a driver’s license, but he couldn’t rent a car. He was old enough to buy a house, but not old enough to buy alcohol. He was too young to run for president, but he was too old to eat off the kid’s menu! What kind of age even _is_ nineteen?!

 _Great, Joey,_ he thought. _I haven’t even been here a day and I’m already having an existential crisis._

Towne Centre was the first thing you saw once you exited the tunnels. It was about as big as a town center could get for a place like Everlock, but it was alright. It was always bustling with activity, with people wandering around and browsing the shops. It had a sort of holiday feel to it, especially around the actual holidays.

But a few things were different. The laundromat was gone, and replaced with a little grocery store. There was also a deli in the place of a former seafood restaurant. The pastry shop was gone, too. In its place was a new shop with a few tables on the outside. Joey could see a sign that read “The Grounds” above the entry.

“What happened to the old buildings that used to be here?” Joey asked.

Nikita shrugged. “I think the laundromat went out when people finally started to realize home washers and dryers were a thing.”  
Manny added, “And fish isn’t exactly one of the main exports of this place. As for the pastry shop, I think business wasn’t going well for a while. Not a lot of young people staying here to buy stuff from them, I guess.”

Joey sure would miss that old pastry shop, but maybe the new coffee shop wouldn’t be that bad. When they entered, Joey was pleasantly surprised to find he was right.

The moment he stepped foot into The Grounds, he noticed an immediate calm in the atmosphere. A chill song called "People Change" by Mipso was playing from a pair of speakers on the ceiling. The menu was written on the wall behind the front counter like a giant whiteboard. Posters and flyers advertising a bunch of different things lined the wall of the counter so patrons could look down and read them. There was another whiteboard on the left wall with a calendar of the month drawn on it, complete with scheduled performers that Joey’s never heard of. The back half of the left wall was entirely covered in chalkboard paint, with sticks of chalk placed in a little bucket right next to the board. The wall was covered in dozens of drawings ranging from goofy doodles to artistic masterpieces. Written in the top left corner in a little thought bubble was, “Creativity is contagious, pass it on!”

The whole shop had a really cozy, homey vibe to it. And Joey liked it. He could see why Jc and Teala would like working in a place like this.

Speaking of which...

“Welcome to The Grounds.” A familiar looking guy with curly hair welcomed the trio without looking up from the pots for a moment. “What are you guys in the mood f- Oh, my God!”

A girl with a dark curly ponytail stacking cups behind him turned to see what the _“Oh my God”_ was about, and her eyes lit up. “Guys!” she exclaimed.

“Jc! Teala!” Joey cried out.

“Joey!” Teala cried when she saw him. “You’re here too!?”

They both left the counter and gave the three of them hugs. Manny probably nearly broke both of their backs. Nikita’s hugs were a little hesitant, but they were still genuine in her own way. They saved Joey’s hugs for last. Jc’s hug was the kind of hug that made Joey feel like he was hugging a brother, if he had one. Teala’s hug was tighter and more like an excited sister.

“It’s so good to see you!” Teala squealed as she finally let Joey breathe.

“It’s good to see you guys, too!” Joey said.

Jc smiled at him warmly. “What’re you doing here, man?”

“He’s back,” Manny answered.

“Like, back as in for the weekend?” Teala asked.

“Back as in back!” Joey told her.

“Dude, no way!” Jc exclaimed.

Teala beamed. “Finally! Someone to spice this town up a little!”

Out of Joey and his friends, those two were the only ones who decided not to go to college right off the bat. Teala and Jc both supported all their friends in their decisions, but they’d both pretty much came to the conclusion that college just wasn’t for them. It just goes like that sometimes, Joey figured. Looking back on it, he kinda wished he’d stayed, too. He remembered Colleen was taking a gap year. He wondered what school she was going to now?

Just then, another familiar face came out from the pool room. She was the same age as Joey and the others (actually, she was the _oldest_ out of everyone in their friend group), but her 4’10” frame and youthful features made her look far younger than twenty.

“Hey, guys?” the girl said. ”I think the pool room is out of - _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!_ ” She started hopping up and down, and her hands flew to her mouth. “Manny! Nikita! _Joey!_ You’re back!” She rushed up to the three of them, arms spread out wide.

Yep, that was Rosanna alright. She’d been off in Seattle studying theatre and culinary arts for the past couple of years. Their friends would sometimes jokingly call Rosanna by the nickname, “Cinnamon Roll.” It was partly because she usually smelled like some kind of baked good that she’d been making, and because she was so damn sweet!

Manny scooped Rosanna up from the ground into a big bear hug. “Hey, little nugget!”

Rosanna turned to Nikita when Manny put her down. Nikita wasn’t much of a hugger, but she made exceptions for friends like Rosanna.

“Hey, Ro!” Nikita gushed. “Missed you, small fry!”

“I missed you, too!” Rosanna then turned to Joey and spread out her arms again. “Joey, I haven’t seen you in a long time, so you get an extra long hug!”

Joey happily obliged. It’s been a minute since he’d had a good Rosanna hug. Her hair smelled like fresh baked cookies, and her hug was really tight and motherly. 

“Hey, Cinnamon Roll!” Joey chirped.

“I haven’t seen you in _for-ev-er!_ ” Rosanna exclaimed. “How are you? Have you been eating enough? Are you staying hydrated?”

Joey laughed. “I’m fine. Yes. And yes.”

The hug lasted for a good thirty seconds before she finally let go. She resumed bouncing up and down like an excited kangaroo.

“You’re back!” she shrieked. “You’re back you’re back you’re back! Come to Fatman Slims tonight!”

“Fatman Slims?” Joey asked.

“Yeah, man,” Jc said. “We’re getting the old gang back together to hang out over the weekend. We’re getting dinner at Fatman Slims tonight.”

“You should come,” Teala added. “It’ll be nice for everyone to see you again!”

Fatman Slims was one of the few places that stood out in Everlock. It was founded in the 70’s and had remained a hot spot ever since. Joey hoped that the place hadn’t changed too much while he was gone, too.

“Sure!” Joey accepted happily. “When?”

“As soon as our shift ends!” Jc replied.

After about two years spent away from his friends, Joey was more than ready to finally see them again! He wasn’t sure why he was so worried earlier. So far, his reunion with his friends had gone a lot better than he’d expected. Still, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat anxious in the back of his mind. He hadn’t been back for long, and he didn’t know what else to expect from the others. From the shop’s speakers, Joey could hear Mipso singing that the thing about people was they changed when they walked away. He wondered if that was the case with his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was hoping I'd be able to write most of this story during the colder months, and if I keep doing what I'm doing, that might be the case!
> 
> Next time: Joey reunites with the rest of his friends. Well, _most_ of them, anyway. While catching up with them, he finds out that a lot more has changed than he originally thought.


	3. Fatman Slims

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm aware Fatman Slims is canonically a pub, but I like the idea of it being a diner :)
> 
> "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" - Played in the diner

Joey spent most of the afternoon at The Grounds, catching up with Manny, Nikita and the others. When Teala and Jc’s shift finally ended around six, they all walked the few blocks to Fatman Slims.

To Joey’s delight, the old diner was exactly how he remembered it. Old vinyl records and movie posters lined the red and white walls. The seats and tables were a bright red with a reflective silver trim on the edges. A juke box was nestled next to the bar, playing an upbeat song by Stevie Wonder. The entire place screamed “1970s,” and Joey loved it.

He was practically raised in this place. He’d been coming to this diner ever since he was little. He was the one who introduced the place to his friends when they were in high school. It didn’t take long for the place to be a regular hang out spot for them. It was where he and his friends would always congregate after football games or for lunch after half-days. 

Joey and Nikita took their seats first. Jc and Teala sat on Joey’s right, while Manny and Rosanna were on Nikita’s left. Joey tapped his fingers on the surface of the table while everyone else chatted. It had been almost two years since he was with everyone together. Would the others be happy to see him? What had they been up to since they left for college?

After a moment, they saw two more people entering the diner. Those two just so happened to be the valedictorians of Joey’s last year of high school. One was a brown-haired boy wearing a red jacket and a shirt with some kind of molecule printed on it. The other was a girl with straight black hair, sporting an equally black bell-sleeved dress.

Joey beamed at them. “MatPat! Safiya!”

Rosanna immediately leaped out of her seat and ran over to them, nearly knocking them over in a hug. It was no secret that the three of them were tighter than bark on a tree. Matt and Rosanna were the de facto brother and sister of the group. Safiya hadn’t met them until second grade, but they were inseparable ever since.

The six of them came together one day during P.E. class near the end of their second grade year. It was a warm day, so the coach took the class outside to play kickball. They were placed on the same team. With the help of Matt’s and Safiya’s strategy, Manny’s and Rosanna’s strength, and Joey’s and Nikita’s agility, they’d totally dominated. They’d stayed a team long after that.

Rosanna led the two of them back to the table, and Joey greeted them. “Hey, guys!”

“Hey, Joey!” Matt said. “My dad told me he saw you last night!”

 _Hopefully he didn’t tell you that I basically destroyed a decaying slide,_ Joey thought to himself.

“We missed you!” Safiya said. “We were starting to wonder if you were abducted by aliens.”

“Yeah,” Matt added, “and _they_ were the ones sending us random messages trying to make us think you were still around!”

Joey laughed. “No aliens - sorry to say.”

_You might think the real reason is a lot more pathetic..._

Right behind them entered the last two of their friend group. A boy with a blue hoodie and ripped jeans walked in with a dark-haired girl in black leggings and a cop-top-sweater. It was Roi and Colleen! 

Roi had joined the group the same time as Teala and Jc. The three of them had already stuck to each other like glue by around second grade, and they’d added to Joey’s group around third grade during an intense game that Roi had called, “Super Tag.” Long story short, it involved throwing a dodgeball, a couple of rubber ducks, and a lot of glow sticks that didn’t work anymore at each other instead of just tapping each other to make them “it.” That kind of dynamic couldn’t be wasted, and the three of them helped add to the fun of the group.

Colleen had come along at the beginning of third grade. She was a new girl in school without many people to talk to. When she sat next to Joey, he was delighted to find that she was a lot like him. They were both talkative and energetic, and they both got to bond even more when they went to camp together the following summer. By the time school started again, Colleen was the tenth addition to the group.

Something was different about Colleen, though.

“Colleen!” Manny gasped. “Your hair!”

When Joey had last seen Colleen, her hair was so long that it reached past her shoulder blades. Now it was cut just above her shoulders. It didn’t look that bad - cute, in fact! Colleen really rocked a bob!

Colleen grinned. “I had it cut after you guys went off. How are you all?”

Roi’s face lit up. “Hey, everyone! Woah, Joey’s back!”

“Joey?” Colleen looked at him. Her grin faltered a bit, but Joey noticed it.

Rosanna bounced up and down in her seat. “He’s totally back!”

“Oh. Cool,” Colleen said, a little apathetically.

“Good to see you again, Joey!” Roi said, picking the vibe back up.

Roi and Colleen slid in next to Jc, and Matt and Safiya slid in following Rosanna. They all quickly decided to order a couple of large pizzas for everyone to share. Joey hadn’t realized how bad Fatman Slim’s pizzas were until he took a bite. The pizza didn’t have enough sauce in it, and the cheese wasn’t all the way melted. 

Joey made a face. “Hm. This pizza isn’t great.”

“It’s pretty bad,” Safiya added.

“Excuse me,” Matt said, “but have any of you heard of the pizza scale?”

“The what?” Joey asked.

“There’s a scale of pizza,” Matt explained. “On one end, there’s bad pizza, but everything above that is still really good!”

“What’s on the other end of the scale?” Manny asked.

“It’s just pizza, all the way up!”

Safiya smirked. “Did you make that up?”

“So what if I did? It should exist!”

“Exactly!” Roi exclaimed. “Pizza good!”

"Agreed!" Joey said.

Though, _this_ pizza could have been better. A _lot_ better.

Rosanna nodded. “It’s no Pastabilities, but it’s still alright!”

“Mmm,” Joey muttered. “Man, I missed Pastabilities. I am _not_ touching these crusts, sis.” He put his slice back down on his plate as he got to the crust.

“Same,” Teala agreed, setting her own crust down.

“We should have gone to Pastabilities.”

“The diner has ambiance,” Matt said.

“And the seats are comfy,” Colleen added.

Nikita nodded. “Their pizzas don’t live up to their burgers, but it’s got charm.”

That much was true. The pizzas may have been crap, but the rest of the food was pretty alright. Not to mention they all shared a love of the 1970s. Why else would Joey and his friends have spent so much time here when they were younger?

Manny sneered at Joey. “You too fancy for Fatman Slims, Joey?”

“Bitch, _please,_ ” Joey teased. “I was _raised_ in this diner.

Colleen raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, you and, like, a million rats.”

The group laughed. Joey laughed with them, but something about that comment sounded… off. He was no stranger to being made fun of once in a while, and he was fine with people he was cool with making jokes at his expense. But Colleen sounded almost irritated when she spoke to him. Almost like she was legitimately comparing him to a million rats.

“So, what else has been going on with you guys?” Joey asked. “I wanna hear what I’ve missed.”

Colleen took a bite of her pizza. “I’m at Strings n’ Things.”

Joey cocked his head. “Your family’s music shop?”

“Mmhmm.”

“I thought you were taking a gap year.”

Colleen shrugged. “Well, life happens,” she said in a monotone voice.

Jc picked the conversation back up. “You already know Teala and I have been working at the Grounds.”

Roi looked up. “How’s that been going, by the way?”

“Good!” Teala replied. “Everyone who comes there is pretty chill for the most part. Despite the occasional Karen.”

Jc looked around, as if someone were watching them. “Don’t tell anyone, but we sometimes make decaf coffee for the Karens.”

Joey gasped. “Scandalous!”

“That’s _evil!_ ” Colleen exclaimed.

“Wig!” Manny yelled.

Teala shrugged. “If they can’t show basic decency to customer service, they don’t deserve caffeine.”

Joey could understand that. “I worked bagging groceries back in school for a few months. Sometimes I’d get these women with bad haircuts commenting that I shouldn’t be wearing nail polish because I’m not a girl. Like, bitch, mind your damn business!”

Safiya laughed. “At least you can wear whatever nail color you want. Remember when I worked at Hollister back in high school? There were no black clothes there! We weren’t even allowed to wear black!” Her face scrunched up in disgust. “The darkest they allow is _navy blue._ ”

She said “navy blue” like it was some kind of disease.

“What’s wrong with navy blue?” Joey asked.

“It’s a stupid color! It’s like blue pretending to be black and failing miserably!”

Everyone laughed again. It was moments like this that he missed the most. Joey and his friends always had these simple, stupid moments that could make him laugh at the dumbest things. Despite spending so much time apart, it was starting to feel like they were just picking up where they left off.

Joey took a sip of his water. “Any more juicy gossip?”

“Well,” Matt’s face was getting red. “I have a girlfriend now.”

Joey gasped again. “Really?!”

“Really,” Matt replied with a nod.

“Her name is Stephanie,” Rosanna chirped.

“ _Ro!_ ”

Safiya smirked. “And she’s super pretty.”

“ _Saf!_ ”

The girls both laughed.

“Matthew Patrick!” Joey chirped. “In a relationship! Wow!”

Matt sighed. “We met in our computer programming class while we were making a video game together. I don’t know. She’s really cool and smart and… Everything with her just seems so, like, easy. It's like I never have to try too hard around her, y'know?” You could see him blushing from a mile away.

Man. One of the world’s biggest nerds actually has a girlfriend? Mind you, Matt would sometimes spend lunch in classrooms just so he could learn more. He spent summers taking college courses to enhance his time in school. He was pretty much a typical theatre nerd, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t cool. And, admittedly, he was pretty dang handsome. He probably wouldn’t have had that much trouble getting a girlfriend.

One more old friend popped into Joey’s head.

“So, where’s Bretman?” Joey asked Nikita. “What’s he up to?”

Nikita blinked. The table went silent for a moment.

“Oh,” Rosanna muttered. “Right, you wouldn’t know, huh?”

Joey knitted his eyebrows. “Wouldn’t know what?”

“Dude,” Jc said, “Bretman’s gone.”

“Gone?” Joey repeated. “What do you mean ‘gone?’”

Teala shrugged. “Hopped the train, probably. He always talked about doing that.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Matt took a swig of Diet Coke. “He just kinda disappeared into thin air one day. No calls, texts, carrier pigeons, nothing.”

“Hm…” Joey muttered. “Well, good for him, I guess.”

“His mom and sister put up posters,” Roi explained. “But everyone knew what happened.”

Joey’s chest did a sad little twinge. Bretman was a good friend of all of them, especially Nikita. He was a bit of a floater in terms of groups of friends he hung out with, but he seemed to have a particular soft spot for Joey and his friends. Joey knew he should be happy that Bretman was off to bigger and better things, but he couldn’t help but feel sad. He was looking forward to seeing him again, too.

Nikita snickered. “Do you people know who you’re talking about? Bretman’s basically me in a wig. Wherever he is, he’s kicking ass right now.”

Maybe Nikita was right. Bretman was like Nikita in a lot of ways. They both had the same sense of fiery determination, ambition, and destructive sass. They sometimes joked about being the same person - that Bretman was just Nikita without her wig. Bretmen was probably fine. Still, Joey would miss him.

“So,” Colleen said, turning to Joey, “what exactly do _you_ do nowadays, Joey?”

“I was in college,” Joey replied.

“ _Was?_ ”

“Yes..?”

“And why exactly are you not still there?”

Joey thought about it. He knew what the insight to that answer would be, but he didn’t quite have the words yet. How was he supposed to answer that question?

He decided to go with a shrug, and told her, “Just didn’t work out, I guess.”

Colleen didn’t like that, apparently. “Huh. Imagine that.”

_Ooooooookay…_

And the table went silent again.

This was weird. Colleen had always been one of the easiest people to talk to in the world. Not to mention she was a lot more talkative than this. Was she feeling okay? Well, it _was_ getting to be Fall. Maybe she was just feeling a little sick or something?

“So, Joey!” Roi exclaimed. The tension was probably making him nervous. “You’re coming to the party tomorrow night, right?”

Joey perked up. “Party? What party?”

Manny explained, “There’s a bunch of high school people home from school this weekend. We’re all going up to the state forest to have this big bonfire.”

Joey smiled. “Girl, you know I’ll be there!”

“Yay!” Rosanna cheered.

Roi shared in her excitement. “Woods are so fun at night!”

Nikita raised her hand in excitement. “Bitch I’m gonna get so wasted!”

Matt knitted his eyebrows. “Wait, why would we have alcohol? We’re all underage…”

Joey snickered. “Oh, you sweet summer child…”

“Wait…” Matt looked like someone just told him the ocean wasn’t water. “Are you telling me that, like, people under twenty-one are drinking?”

Manny chuckled. “Literally, everyone but you, me, and Colleen, girl.”

Matt grabbed the sides of his head. “My mind is broken! _My mind is broken!!!_ ” He slammed his face on the table while the rest of the table broke out in laughter again. “What is my life anymore?! What is my life?!” 

Safiya pulled the poor nerd in for a hug while Rosanna patted his back.

“It’s okay, buddy!” Safiya assured him through her laughter. “It’s gonna be alright!”

“I thought I knew the world! I thought I _knew!_ I thought I _kneeeeeew!_ ”

Manny reached over from behind Rosanna and patted Matt on the head. “The nice men in the white coats are coming, it’s okay!”

God, it was good to see all those weirdos again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: The group finds something outside the diner that isn't normally supposed to be outside of diner. Also, Colleen seems a lot more closed off than Joey originally thought.


	4. The Arm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Songs in this chapter:  
> "The Arm" _Night in the Woods_ Soundtrack - Starts at: _“Guys,” Teala said, “this is, like, tampering with evidence.”_
> 
> Quick tw for a dead/severed body part

Once everyone finished their crappy pizza, they all walked out of the diner and into the parking lot. Joey was feeling refreshed and relaxed after a (somewhat) good meal with a bunch of good people.

“Man,” Joey said, “it’s so good to be back!”

Jc grinned at him. “Dude, you can hang out with me, Teala and Colleen any time. Just let us know whenever you feel like doin’ stuff.”

Joey’s only been back for a day, and he was feeling better already! He was back with his family, he got to see his old friends again, and he was going to a party tomorrow! He was doing pretty okay, if he did say so himself. And he did.

His thoughts were cut off when Rosanna and Teala let out a shriek. Joey jumped and turned in their direction to find some of the others staring at something on the ground.

“Oh, my God!” Colleen gasped.

“Holy crap!” Matt exclaimed.

Jc ran to them and saw what they were going on about. “What the hell, man?!”

“Oh, bitch!” Manny cried.

“What?!” Joey asked as he jogged over. “What is it?!”

“Is that an arm?!” Nikita asked.   


“That’s an arm,” Safiya confirmed with wide eyes.

They all gathered around and took a look. Joey choked back a scream and covered his mouth in shock. Surely enough, it was an arm. Right there on the pavement. What the hell was  _ that  _ doing there?!

Roi ran up in front of the others and spread his arms out. “Nobody move…”

They did what he said. Joey stared at the arm, almost worried that if any of them made any sudden movements, the arm would come to life and grab one of them. Whoever this arm belonged to, they were really pale. The sleeve of some kind of army jacket had been cut off with it. Or ripped off...

Where did it come from? Whose arm was it? How long had it been there? Joey didn’t remember seeing it when they went into the diner. Did this happen while they were still eating? His mind was buzzing with a million questions at once.

Roi suddenly excitedly exclaimed, “Let’s poke it with a stick!”   


“I call first!” Nikita cried as she ran off to find a stick.

Joey followed her. “No way! I wanna touch it!”

“You’ll get your turn!” Nikita retorted as she pulled a stick from the bushes.

What? When was the next time Joey was gonna get to poke a severed arm with a stick?

“Guys,” Teala said, “this is, like, tampering with evidence.”   


Colleen shuddered. “Ugh… am I gonna have to start worrying about getting dismembered on the way home?”   


“Shh!” Roi hissed. “I wanna watch this!”   


“You don’t need your ears to wat-”

_ “Shhhhh!” _

Nikita knelt down and started poking the arm with her stick. Everyone watched as the arm twitched and rolled around as she prodded at it. She messed around with the fingers, probably trying to make the arm flip the bird. A cockroach crawled by, and Nikita used the stick to shove it away. She pressed the tip of the arm’s sleeve around, probably trying to get a look at the wrist, when Joey noticed something.

“Nikita,” Joey said. “Can I see that stick for a sec?”

Nikita looked up at him. “Alright. But I want it back.” And she handed the stick over.

Joey got on his knees and tried to move the sleeve back with the stick. It took a moment, but he eventually slid the sleeve far back enough to make out what the mark was. It was some kind of sideways rhombus shape, and it was filled in with black ink.

“Huh…” Joey muttered.

“What are you looking at?” Rosanna asked.   


“I found a tattoo,” Joey told them. “You guys think this could be some kind of clue?”

“Oh for eff’s sake,” Colleen muttered.

“Oh, shit!” Manny hissed. “Here come the cops!”

Joey looked up. “Wha-?”

He met the eyes of Officer Patrick. “What’s going on here?”

Joey instantly straightened up. Of course, this would happen. Again.

Matt waved at his Dad awkwardly. “Hey, Dad. We, uh… we found an arm.”

“I can see that,” Officer Patrick said. “Alright, everyone. Step away from the arm. Joey, put the stick down.”

“Yes sir,” Joey said. He threw the stick aside as everyone backed up from the arm.

“Aw,” Roi muttered. “ _I_ didn't get to poke it...”

Officer Patrick looked down at the arm, studying it left and right. Joey wondered how often Officer Patrick dealt with stuff like this. Matt had told him a long time ago that the most eventful thing to happen to his Dad was a stolen bike. Joey was no expert on crime (despite what some of the townsfolk might say), but he’d say this trumped that case by a long shot.

Officer Patrick turned his attention back to Joey and the others. “Do any of you know how long this arm has been here?”

“Not really,” Joey replied with a shrug. “We just walked outside and it was here.”

Matt took over. “We think it might have happened while we were inside. Sometime within the past two hours or so.”

Officer Patrick sighed. “Okay, I don’t want any of you going home alone tonight. Buddy system. Something bad’s going on.”

“Yo, Roi,” Jc said. “Why don’t you ride with me and Teala? My car is back at the coffee place.”

“Uh…” Roi looked at him and Colleen. “I mean, I rode here with Colleen…”

Colleen grinned at him. “It’s cool. I can drive Manny, Nikita and Joey home.”

“Oh. Cool!”

“Thanks, girl!” Manny said.

“Yeah,” Joey said. “Thanks Colleen!”

“Okay, then.” Officer Patrick nodded. “Ro, Safiya, why don’t you two come with me and Matt? We’ll drop you both at home.”

“Okay!” Rosanna chirped.   


“Thanks, Officer,” Safiya said.

Joey nodded at everyone. “Alright then, let’s roll!”

For the most part, the drive with Colleen was cheery and full of chatter. Manny and Nikita were telling Joey and Colleen crazy stories about their time in New York. Most of which included matters that were, um… not safe for work. Long story short, one of the stories ended with a clogged kitchen sink, an electric hairbrush and a box of ripped up rubber duckies. Weird combination, yeah.

By the time Manny and Nikita were both dropped off, Joey and Colleen were alone. He climbed up to the front so he could sit next to Colleen and they could keep talking. Colleen didn’t seem much in the mood for chatting anymore, though. Like, at all. She just sat there and stared out the windshield with a thousand-yard-stare.

“Soooo…” Joey muttered. “Workin’ at the old Strings n’ Things, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Are they training you to take over the family business?”

She knitted her eyebrows without taking her eyes off the road. “They?”

“Your parents?”

All of a sudden, Colleen slammed on the breaks. Joey jerked forward so hard that his seatbelt nearly strangled him. His hands flew to his neck as he started gagging and coughing up a storm.

“Oh look we’re here,” Colleen said in a deadpan tone.. She deadass didn’t care that he was practically choked by the very thing that was supposed to protect him.

Once he regained control of his breathing, Joey said in a strained voice, “Uh, actually my house isn’t for another block.”   


“Get out.”

“What?”   


She glared at him with a thousand daggers in her eyes. “Get out of my car.  _ Now. _ ”

“Uh… okay?” He unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out the door. “Thanks for the ride-”

“ _ Go! _ ”   


Joey jumped. “Okay, okay!”

He shut the door and took a few steps forward. Almost immediately, he heard the engine rev, and Colleen’s car sped past him. She flew down the road into the night.

“Wow…” Joey said to no one. “Since when was Colleen such a bitch?”

He was left to wonder about that as he walked the block to his house. He didn’t get it. Colleen was always so cool and easy to talk to. Ever since they were kids, she’s been one of the most lighthearted, outgoing people he’s ever known. What happened to her?

When Joey unlocked the front door and entered his house, he went into the living room to see if Dad was there. As he was hoping, he was there, reading a book with the TV on in the background.

Dad looked up from his book when Joey walked into the room. “Hey, kiddo.”   


“Hey, Pops.”

Dad put his book down. “Listen, Joey, I’m sorry about last night. I really thought you were coming home tonight.”

Was that still bothering him? Well, thinking back on it, Joey kinda just joked around with him and went up to bed. He hasn’t technically told him it was cool. Dad was like that sometimes. Every so often he’d forget something, and he’d feel bad about it.   


Joey smiled at him. “It’s okay. Happens to the best of us.”   


Dad shrugged. “You know me, with the bad memory.”

“Yeah, but you do pretty well. You’re really good at, like, remembering how to walk.”   


“I remember to eat and breathe sometimes.” Dad put a hand over his heart and raised the other one. “I promise, I’ll never leave you stranded again.”

“Tell you what? How about we pretend I  _ did _ come home tonight, and we just got back from the train station?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Joey cleared his throat. “Hey, Dad!”   


“Hey there, Joey!”

“Thanks for picking me up.”

“Welcome home, kiddo!”

Joey finally realized how tired he was. It was a long day full of walking around town and social interaction.   


“I’m gonna go to sleep, I think,” he said.   


“Well, you’ve had a big day today. Goodnight, Joey.”   


“Night, Dad.” He turned and started back through the kitchen, when he remembered something important. He rushed back into the living room. “Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you!”

“What is it?”   


“We found an arm!”

Dad knitted his eyebrows thoughtfully. “Are we still pretending it’s yesterday?”   


“No, my friends and I walked out of Fatman Slims and there was an arm!”

“Just, like… an arm?”

“Yeah! Matt’s Dad came and everything.”

Dad blinked. “Oh, my God! That’s really… weird.”   


“Nikita and I poked it with a stick.”

That earned him a look of stern fatherly disapproval. “Okay, really, Joey. I don’t want you poking dead body parts with sticks. Huh…  _ there’s  _ something I never thought I’d have to say to you.”

“Too late! Welp, goodnight for real now, Dad.”   


“Night, Joey.”

With that, Joey went upstairs. He was exhausted, both physically and socially. He’d probably need to recharge before the party tomorrow night. He got ready for bed, and fell asleep almost immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Joey goes out to run some errands before the party, and some folks in town aren't as happy to see him...


	5. "Hey, Killer."

Joey ended up sleeping in for quite a bit the next day. By the time he woke up and stretched himself out, the sun was already well up in the sky. He checked the time on his phone to find it read 1:30 PM.

 _“Bitch!”_ he gasped. “How did I sleep that long?!”

To be fair, Joey was more or less used to sleeping a lot. But yesterday he was still able to wake up relatively early in the day. Well, it was a big day yesterday. Maybe his body just decided, “Girl, you deserve to sleep in today after your first day seeing your home and friends again!” In which case, _Thank you body._

It turned out he woke up at a good time because his phone started ringing. He checked the caller ID to see the name, “Troublemaker.”

Nikita.

He answered without hesitation. “Hey!”

 _“Party time!”_ she cheered.

Joey laughed. “Girl, you know it!”

_“Girl, I’m so excited! You better be ready to have a good time!”_

“Do you know who you’re talking to?” Joey joked.

Nikita laughed on the other end. _“What a weekend it’s been. You’re home, bitch!”_

“I’m home, bitch!” Joey repeated.

Nikita always knew how to hype people up. It didn’t matter what it was. Whether it was a party, a school dance, or a Mario Kart tournament, she might as well have been a cheerleader. She probably would have been if she didn’t hate cheerleaders, or if she didn't like punching stuff so much. That might have been part of the reason why she was co-captain of the volleyball team from sophomore to senior year, along with Manny.

She spoke again from the other line. _“Manny’s gonna be driving you and me, is that cool with you?”_

“Of course it is!”

_“Oh! Before I forget, Colleen is supposed to bring some drinks to the party. I think she told us she was getting some from her brother, Chris. Can you ask if she has them?”_

“What? No. I think she’s mad at me for something.”

 _“It’s probably fine, Joey. Besides, she’s at work right now, and she never answers her phone during her shifts. Just go to her family’s music shop and ask her. Pleeeeaaaaase?”_ She stretched out the “please” an extra mile.

Joey sighed. “Fine.”

_“You’re the best! See you tonight, girl!”_

“Alright. Later, Nikita!”

And he hung up and went downstairs. He was still excited to get another chance to hang out with his friends, but he couldn’t help but feel nervous for a variety of reasons. First of all, Joey wasn’t too much of an extroverted person. Crowds of people sometimes made him anxious, even if he knew them. Not to mention _Cole_ might be there.

He and Cole dated part of junior year until prom night. It was painfully awkward; his tux was too tight, and he couldn’t slow dance. Cole was nice enough, but to make a long story short, that night ended with Cole having a bloody lip and being covered in puke, and Joey riding home on Josh Gartner’s tractor, crying his eyes out.

Uh… you know, maybe we’ll get into more of that later...

Anyway!

When Joey got to the kitchen, Nicole was sitting at the bar and typing away on her computer while something was baking in the oven. She must have been talking to a client or her boss. She worked as a prep cook for a local catering company. There were hardly any events in Everlock that needed catering, but if there was, the Graceffa house always smelled like something delicious.

“Morning, Nicole!” he greeted as he hopped up to sit on the counter.

She grinned up at him and replied, “Nope! I’m Nicole 24/7, thank you very much.”

Joey rolled his eyes. “Har har har.”

“Also it’s two in the afternoon.”

“I’ve noticed. Whatcha up to? I thought you didn’t work on weekends.”

She sighed. “I gotta work from home today - big catering job to help out with. I’ve been put in charge of making three things of baked spaghetti and four things of baked mac n’ cheese.”

“ _Wow,_ ” Joey mused. “That’s a _lotta_ baked pasta.”

“People these days are big on baked pastas, apparently. So, what are _you_ up to today?”

“My friends and I are going to a party tonight.”

Nicole lit up. “Look at you! Back only two days, and already the social butterfly!”

Joey laughed. “Yeah, I’m in pretty high demand. I’m a little nervous, though. It’s been a while since I've been to an actual party.”

“Don’t worry about it, Joey, you’ll be fine! Get out there and mingle!”

“Actually, I think it’s mostly gonna be old high school people.”

Nicole nodded. “You think Cole will be there? I always thought you guys were so cute together.”

Joey gave her a look. “Nicole. _No.”_

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t know that was still a sensitive subject.”

“It’s not.”

Joey didn’t know how his embarrassment of a relationship shared part of a name with his awesome sister.

“Oh! Before you go tonight…” Nicole picked up a short list and a couple of twenty dollar bills from the bar, and handed them to him. “Would you mind running over to the general store to pick up a few things for me?”

“Sure thing!” Joey said, taking the list. “I need to head into Towny Centry anyway. Gotta ask Colleen about… party stuff.”

There was no way on God’s green earth Joey was going to tell Nicole that he and his friends were gonna be drinking that night. If she knew, he’d never hear the end of it.

“Thanks, man,” Nicole said. Thankfully, she didn’t seem in the mood to ask any more questions. “Have a good time out there!”

“I will!”

He grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the table and stepped out of the house. The warm afternoon sun shone down on the neighborhood as he made his way down his driveway. He figured a walk would probably do him some good today. Maybe it would help clear his head about the all the party nerves.

He was just about to get onto the road after his first bite of apple, when someone called to him.

“Hey, you! Boy!”

He turned in the direction of the voice to see none other than Janet Wilson.

Joey internally groaned. Ms. Wilson was Mortimer’s mom, but Joey never understood how his laid back teacher was related to that bitchy stick-in-the-mud. She was a neighbor ever since Joey was a kid, and even as a tiny six-year-old, he didn’t like her. You could say in the nicest voice possible, “Hi, Ms. Wilson!” and she would snap at you saying, “Don’t you use that tone with me! It’s _good afternoon,_ Ms. Wilson to you, little miss/mister!” And the best part? Dad had told him in the past that she became the Mayor last term. So now she had to be addressed as _Mayor_ Wilson.

And now he had to talk to her.

 _Great,_ he griped to himself.

Joey sighed. “Hi, Mayor Wilson.”

Ugh. That title sounded wrong. Wrong and stupid.

Mayor Wilson folded her arms and raised an eyebrow smugly. “Didn’t last long, did you?”

“No, Mayor Wilson.”

“You get a job yet?”

Uh, was this woman not aware of the fact that he was only home for, like, thirty-six hours? Apparently not. He decided to take a jab at her new career.

“Yep,” Joey said sarcastically. “I’ve been elected the new mayor.”

She unfolded her arms and put a hand on her hip. “Is that so?”

“I’ve ordered your house to be bulldozed. Surprise!” He spread his hands out.

“Finishing the job you started, are you?”

“Enjoy living in the woods!”

She scowled at him. “I’ll have you know, those eggs took the paint off the vinyl siding!”

“Live off the land! Commune with the beasts, Mayor Wilson!”

Her tone suddenly became sharp. “Watch yourself, little mister.”

“ _Little mister?_ ” he repeated.

What was this woman’s deal? How old did she think he was?

Mayor Wilson put her hands on her hips. “No one’s forgotten about you, or what you did. They may act like they have, but that’s just small town polite, right there.”

“Is that what this is?” Joey asked.

_If that’s the case, I’d hate to see what “small town rudeness” is like._

Mayor Wilson continued. “Small town polite is all you’ve got, and it’s all you’re _going_ to get. So I’d suggest you watch it.”

Joey rolled his eyes. “Well, this was nice, but I need to go have a staring contest with wet paint.”

He made his way back up the driveway and towards the back door. He entered, grabbed the keys to the family car from a desk next to the door, and went back out. Maybe it would be better if he didn’t walk to the store after all. Maybe it would be a better idea to drive there so he wouldn’t run into too many more people like that. The less people he ran into, the less people would give him that crap.

There wasn’t too much on the list Nicole needed: just some soap, hair stuff, baking soda and a couple of prescription headache meds. Joey was just finishing up when he got the feeling someone was watching him. He turned a bit to see a couple of adults he didn’t know giving him weird looks, then turning away like he hadn’t noticed them.

 _How about you mind your damn business, huh?_ he wanted to say. But he paid for his items and left without a word.

As he walked out into the parking lot, he saw a group of adults chatting about something. He couldn’t help but stop for a moment and listen in…

A guy with a dress shirt and tie said, “And if we don’t _start_ drummin’ in business here soon, there ain’t gonna _be_ an Everlock! So we gotta do wherever we can do to get the market to notice us!”

Another guy in a pink button-up shirt said, “Alright, can we get back to the topic at hand already?”

“Yeah, so we allocate funds to preserve the statue of-”

“Gary, you’re not hearing me!” pink-shirt guy exclaimed. 

“Don’t tell me I’m not hearing you, Andrew!” Gary, which was apparently his name, yelled.

“It’s not! Of! Sufficient! Historical note!”

“Your _ass_ isn’t of sufficient historical note!”

Joey snickered at that a bit. He couldn’t help himself.

A woman in a pink cardigan over a blue checkered shirt yelled, “Guys, guys, stop it! This is the stoplight argument all over again!”

A guy with a mustache and a work jacket took over. “Yeah, and remember who won _that_ one?”

“Can we move on?” Andrew asked.

“Fine,” the woman said.

“Fine,” Gary added.

And the group walked off, arguing about more things that Joey had no idea about. Were they some kind of neighborhood watch committee or something? Whatever they were talking about, it didn’t sound too good. Maybe Everlock wasn’t doing so well after all. Well, Joey knew the old mining town was kind of going under, but not to the point where there wouldn’t _be_ an Everlock anymore.

He tried to shake it off and go on his way. Strings n’ Things was right across the street. Thank God. All he had to do was check in with Colleen and he could go home and drain himself of the afternoon.

He was about to head over when he noticed a board covered in fliers along the sidewalk. He decided to go over and see what was going on in town now that he was home. He glanced over the papers and saw a few things that caught his interest. Harfest, the celebration held every Halloween, was one of the first fliers he noticed. Another was advertising a sale at the local thrift store. A picture of a dog that someone found, as well as a number, was placed there as well.

“Aw, good for the dog,” he said.

But the thing that caught his attention the most was a missing person poster for none other than Bretman. His heart sank as he remembered his friend was gone. Joey picked up the poster and studied it. The picture his family decided to use was Bretman’s senior yearbook photo. He must have spent hours trying to perfect his makeup for that picture. He was flashing the camera his trademark smirk that was always just slightly crooked. The whole look practically oozed confidence in a typical Bretman fashion. Below his photo was a description, asking the public for help tracking him down:

 _Bretman Rock_ _Sacayanan (19) of Everlock, California. Last seen walking North along the train tracks leading outside of town near the former Food Donkey. He was last seen wearing a yellow jacket over a white tank top, dark jeans, and white Adidas sneakers. If you have any information as to the location of Bretman Sacayanan at any time since his last sighting, please call the Everlock Police Department immediately._

“Hey, killer!” someone yelled in a high pitched voice. “Whatcha doing?”

Joey looked up from the poster to see none other than Lucy Some-Last-Name. He hardly knew her at all, but she was in the same school district as him. She was probably a freshman or sophomore in high school by now. That girl basically made a name for herself as a complete sociopath. And we’re not talking just an exaggeration here. She’s quite literally been diagnosed as a sociopath, and was on some kind of crime watch list in town for arson or something.

Joey rolled his eyes. “Ugh, don’t call me that,” he told her. “How do you even know about the killer thing?”

Lucy smiled smuggly. “It was a big deal, even to us middle schoolers. Everybody knows about _you._ ”

She said “knows” as if it hadn’t happened years ago.

“That was a long time ago,” he told her. “You really need to learn to let shit go.”

But she didn’t let it go. She just narrowed her eyes and grinned widely. “So why’d ya do it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did he have it coming?”

“No.”

“Did you go after that guy, too?” She pointed at Bretman’s poster.

Okay, that made Joey _really_ mad!

“He was my friend!” he retorted. “Besides, I wasn’t even around when he went missing!”

Lucy crossed her arms, probably satisfied with the reaction she got from Joey. “Our moms told us to stay away from you. Because no one knew when you were gonna do it again.” She said that like she was bragging about winning the World’s Biggest Asshole pageant.

Joey huffed. “Yeah. Well, say hi to your mom for me. She sounds lovely.”

He set the poster back in its place and walked away. He wasn’t gonna give this stupid teenager anymore of his time. Besides, he still had to stop by Strings n’ Things to see Colleen.

“See ya ‘round, killer!” Lucy called, laughing at him as he made his way across the street.

Joey covered his ears. “ _Ignoring, ignoring, la la la la la!_ ” he sang.

Okay, so, maybe this needs a bit of an explanation. Without going into too much dirty laundry, there was an... incident when Joey was in eighth grade. The incident didn't result in any deaths, but it was still pretty bad. Judging by some people, though - i.e. Lucy's mom apparently - it made people afraid of him to the point where some people thought he was a killer waiting to snap again. Even some of his own friends avoided him for a while. He even had to go to therapy after the while thing...

Whatever.

He kept trying to put that out of his mind until he got to Strings n’ Things. The inside was exactly how he remembered it. There were aisles with shoulder-high black shelves full of things from records, to CDs, to tapes. The silvery-white walls were lined with instruments ranging from flutes to guitars. A piano was displayed in the very back, but it looked more like it was for decoration than for any kind of sale. The front desk had a see through-glass lined with a bunch of CDs that were on sale on the inside.

And who was at the front desk? Colleen. Some of her hair was tied back in a tiny bun to keep it out of her face, and she was wearing a red vest with a little nametag over a black shirt. She was talking to one of her older brothers, Trent, who was wearing the same uniform. Joey must have just walked in on some kind of discussion.

Colleen spoke while she was writing something down on a sheet of paper. “Okay, so write that up as on the clock, okay?”

Trent shook his head. “They’re not gonna like that,” he told her.

She looked up and set her pen down. “I don’t care if they don’t like it. It was their fault, plain and simple. It’s time extra. We charge for that, and they know this.”

“Okay, if you say so.” Trent took the paper, and turned to see Joey. “Joey! Hi!”

“Hey, Trent!”

They gave each other a quick hug. Well, at least one of Colleen’s _siblings_ was happy to see him.

“How are you?” Trent asked him. “We haven’t seen you since graduation.”

“I’m okay. Just got back in town a few nights ago. You?”

“Things have been alright. Just workin’ the shop.”

 _“A-hem!”_ Colleen cleared her throat. “Uh, Trent could you go help Rachel in the back? We still gotta take inventory.”

“Oh, yeah. No problem. Good to see you, Joey!”

“You too!” Joey replied as Trent disappeared in the aisles.

And with that, he was alone with Colleen.

“Hey, girl,” he said with a little wave.

“Hi.”

“Uh, how’s work?”

She turned her attention to the register. “Back and forth. Stressful now. We need to take in inventory for the rest of the month, and Chris and I have to figure out which CDs we need to order more of.

“Do people still listen to CDs and tapes and stuff anymore?” Joey asked.

“Some people have vintage tastes, Joey,” she answered as she turned her attention to some more papers. “People like the nostalgia, not to mention how good older music sounds. And we need to order some keyboards too, which means I’m gonna have to bribe one or maybe all of my siblings to help. I’m not unloading those heavy-ass boxes all by _my_ damn self, that’s for sure.”

“Oh. Cool…”

Joey wasn’t all too sure how else to respond. She must not have been in the mood to chat or something. Again.

She looked back up at him after a moment of painfully awkward silence. “You gonna buy something or have a one-way staring contest with Billie Armstrong back there?” She pointed at the Green Day poster behind her.

“Oh! I’m not here to shop, actually,” he said.

“Then what do you want?”

“Uh, Nikita just wanted me to stop by and ask if you were bringing drinks to the party tonight. Y’know, the one happening at the State Park?”

“Oh, of course! Thanks for the reminder! Otherwise I probably would have blacked out on any of the _dozens_ or other parties that happen on any given night in Everlock, California on a regular basis!” Her voice reeked with sarcasm.

“Sooooo…” Joey muttered.

She sighed. “Chris bought some beers last week. I’ll be bringing those.”

“Okay, cool. Thanks!”

“Mmhmm. Look, I gotta get back to work. Go home and get ready, alright?”

“Okay, see you tonight then!”

“Don’t get lost on your way home.”

Joey sighed. “I know where I live.”

“Just go home and get ready!”

Joey threw up his hands. “Okay, okay! Jeez…”

Well, people in town didn’t like him, his home was going into the ground, and one of his best friends was acting like a bitch. Lovely. Wonderful. Fantastic!

With that, he left and made his way back to the car in the general store parking lot. A stupid end to a stupid afternoon. Hopefully the party would be better than the rest of this stupid day. Maybe he should have just stayed in bed until the party.

Oh, well. Maybe tonight would make up for this shitty day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh. Not a good start to the day huh?
> 
> Next time: Joey talks to himself in a mirror, gets his party on, and hopefully doesn't make a total fool of himself. Eh, who am I kidding... Also Colleen finally sheds some light on why she's been so cold.


	6. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TWs before we get into the nitty gritty: There's a bunch of drinking in this chapter, along with self deprecation, some vomiting, and mentions of deceased relatives near the end (specifically mentions of cancer and drunk driving accidents). Take care my dudes.
> 
> Songs used in this chapter:  
> "The Woods" by Daughter - Played in Joey's room.  
> "Fifteen Minutes" and "Like a Star" by Mike Krol - Played during the party (I highly recommend him! His music has a real fun summer-y vibe)

It was about 5 PM by the time Joey pulled into the driveway. Finally. He was more ready to see his house than ever.

“ _Hellooooooo?!_ ” Joey called as he opened the backdoor.

“Kitchen!” Nicole called back.

He walked through into the kitchen to find both Nicole and his Dad waiting for him. Nicole was still at the bar while Dad was by the stove.

“Hey, bud!” Nicole exclaimed.

“Look who’s home!” Dad added.

Joey smiled. “Hey, the father and sister!”

Honestly, it was nice to see them after all the crap he was taking today. Their smiling faces made the afternoon a little bit better.

“You’re just in time,” Nicole said. “My pasta baking is done and I’m making tacos.”

“Correction,” Dad commented. “ _We’re_ making tacos.”

“Tacos?” Joey repeated.

“Tacos!” Nicole confirmed.

“You want some tacos, kiddo?” Dad asked.

“I want tacos, all day! Every day!” Joey replied.

It was a well-known fact, at least in the Graceffa household, that Joey would never say no to tacos. Ever.

Dad beamed. “A family that tacos together rockos together!”

 _Oh, my God,_ Joey griped.

Nicole groaned loudly and let her head fall onto the surface of the bar. Joey buried his face in his hands and internally screamed. Dad really was a dad in every way shape and form right now.

“What?” Dad asked.

“Dad, no!” Nicole yelled, not lifting her head up.

Joey slammed his hands against his legs. “I’m so freakin’ angry right now!”

Dad made a face. “My own flesh and blood, turned against me!”

The three of them laughed. Even after everything, it was nice to know that Joey’s family was still there for him. The two of them _had_ been for years. Their family might have been small, but Joey liked it that way. The three of them knew each other better than anyone else in the entire world.

“Anyway,” Joey said after gathering his composure. “You guys want me to help, too?”

“That’d be awesome,” Nicole said as she got up from her seat. “It’s been a while since we all made food together.”

“How many tacos do you want, Joey?” Dad asked.

“Yes,” was Joey’s straightforward reply.

Manny texted him after dinner saying he and Nikita would be driving by his house to get him around 8:30, which gave Joey plenty of time. He took a long hot shower to scrub off the crap from the day, and put some calming music on so he wouldn’t freak himself out too much. He tried to find something to wear that was both warm and decent-looking. It was still September, but the weather was starting to cool down at night. He settled on an old blue hooded jacket that Nicole got him for his birthday. He hadn't worn it in a while, but he liked how it looked.

“Alright, Joey,” he finally said to himself. “It’s go time! ...Maybe I should make sure I don’t look too bad.”

He walked up to a wooden full length mirror that he kept on the left side of his room and looked himself over.

“Looking alright.”

 _I have the worst face,_ his brain told him. _Ugh, my big dumb eyes. My nightmare eyes._

Joey thought about that phrase for a second. “Huh. ‘Nightmare Eyes’ would be a pretty good horror movie name. It’ll be totally dark, and you'll see the eyes outside your window.” He made a creepy face. “ _And you'll know…_ Wagh!”

Joey straightened up. He scared himself a little just then.

“Okay. How’s the jacket lookin’?”

_God, I’m a freakin’ stick._

He adjusted his blue hoodie a bit so that it looked a little baggier than it actually was. Joey had always been a bit thin for his age, and it was annoying. He was secretly jealous of people like Manny. Puberty hadn’t just hit him with a truck - it hit him with a tank. Full of big rocks. Being driven by a really muscular elephant. Meanwhile Joey still looked like a really tall sixth grader.

“If puberty could have skipped to the part where I’d get really buff, that would have been great,” Joey said. “Augh, come on. Don’t do this to yourself. Tomorrow, you’ll lift a whole bunch of weights and do some other strength stuff!”

He probably wouldn’t.

Joey sighed. “You can do this. People like you!”

_People don’t like you, and you don’t like people. Clearly._

He frowned. “No friends in college. Not even your roommate... “ He shook his head. “Okay, just because that _one_ online quiz said you’d be happiest in a situation where people already like you but they mostly leave you alone, except when they’re delivering food to you, that doesn’t mean you can hide in your room! That’s how hermits are made, Joey - and they die alone in the middle of winter, waiting for pizza from friends they don’t wanna see.”

Well, Joey knew for a fact that he didn’t want that to happen. He still had friends from here, not to mention his family. But how long would that even last?

Augh! No! No life crisis tonight! Back to business at hand.  
“You’re not gonna do this to yourself tonight, Joey. You’re going to a party! You’re gonna have a great time! And who cares if Cole is there? He’s probably up at school, or whatever. Taking classes, being all successful, probably doesn’t even think about me.”

Okay, so the thing about Cole. He and Joey used to date, right? Well, when they went to junior prom together, Joey had somehow messed up their slowdance. He’d accidentally knocked into Cole’s face when he tried to dip him, and Cole’s lip started bleeding. He’d rushed him to the bathroom, and tried to stop the bleeding with a crapton of toilet paper. And the entire time, he was shoving his own face with candied almonds from one of the snack tables. Poor Cole was just sitting there slumped against the bathroom wall the entire time.

Joey ended up choking on one of the almonds, and tried to give himself the heimlich maneuver. It worked, but… he also puked all over the bathroom. And Cole. And then, of course, somebody had walked in to see Cole covered in blood and toilet paper and puke, and Joey throwing up in one of the sinks. He eventually pulled Cole out of the bathroom, and he ran away and left. And he was Joey’s ride. He ended up riding home on the back of Josh Gartner’s tractor. They were going really slowly, cars were honking, and Joey was crying his eyes out.

Aaaaaand now he was making himself sad again. Stop it, Joey!

“Okay, girl. What are you gonna say?” he asked his reflection. “You’re a smooth talker. You’re a _smoothie._ ”

He tried his best for a plastic smile and waved at his reflection.

“Hi! I’m Joey! How’s it going?!”

No, not that one. Too straight-forward.

“Hi! I’m Joey! What’s your name?!”

Nah, too formal.

“Hi! I’m Joey! I dropped out of college earlier this week! And now I’m drinking in the woods!”

That was when he realized he was talking to himself in a mirror. In his room. By himself.

He drooped. “This is hopeless. Somebody wheel me out to the curb for garbage day…”

Joey’s phone pinged with a text from Manny, telling him they were on their way.

“Oh, shoot. They’ll be here any minute!” He looked at his reflection again. “Good luck out there, kid…”

 _Psh, I don’t need luck,_ he thought with a grin. _I make my_ own _luck. With a luck machine!_

Manny was one of the designated drivers for the night. He never really drank, so nobody had to worry about anything happening. If Joey was worried about anything, though, it would be what everyone else at high school had been up to, whether or not Cole was there, and every possible way he might embarrass himself. But he was so totally cool that he wasn’t even gonna pay attention to any of that!

“So,” Joey said. “You guys all heading back to school tomorrow?”

“Unfortunately,” Manny replied. “Yes.”

“Aww. I wish I had more time to hang out with you.”

Now that Labor Day weekend was coming to an end, Joey would have to say goodbye to some of the others for the next few months. He was feeling better enough to keep better touch with them, but he’d still miss them. At least he still had Jc and Teala to hang out with. Colleen, though… as sad as it made him, he didn’t know if she even wanted to see him again.

“Well, we would be going back earlier…” Nikita said with a sneer. “If we didn’t have _plaaaaaaans…_ ”

“Plans?” Joey repeated.

“Crimes.”

“Crimes?” Joey piped up.

“Crimes,” Manny confirmed.

Niktia grinned from ear to ear. “You down for some crimes tomorrow before we leave, Joey?”

Joey got into his fair share of trouble when he was younger, but Nikita was the one who instigated “crimes” for the three of them back in their early days of high school. Nothing major, just the occasional sneaking into an old abandoned store, or TP-ing some jerk’s house. Nikita and Joey would often be the ones to eff shit up while Manny acted as a bodyguard for the two of them. It was always such a rush and Joey loved it!

“Hell yeah, I am!” Joey answered.

Joey was feeling better already. Maybe he was worried over nothing! He was going to a party with his friends after a long time of not seeing them, and now he was hanging out with two of his best friends before they left the next day! After everything got into full swing, all the bullshit from today would melt away.

Joey hadn’t really been to a lot of parties back at college, other than one or two events that the school itself held. He imagined that college parties usually consisted of a bunch of frat boys and sorority girls getting sloppy-ass drunk and making poor life choices. Thankfully, this party was more of a kick-back than anything else. Everyone was out in the woods, the music was just loud enough for only the party goers to hear, and the vibe was decent all around. There was even a douchebag guitar player sitting near the fire. He was strumming away to the song “Fifteen Minutes” by Mike Krol, but it was the generic down-down-up-up-down-up pattern that _every guitar player_ does when they’re trying to be sensitive.

Joey was hanging out with Rosanna at one of the picnic tables where the drinks were being kept. They sat on the bench with their backs to the actual table, talking and catching up. He took a sip of beer and made a face.

“Ugh, this is _nasty!_ ” he exclaimed. “It tastes like boiled freakin’ piss!”

“I know!” Rosanna agreed. “I hate beer. I can’t remember the last time I drank it and liked it.”

“ _You_ drank beer before?!”

Rosanna giggled. “I’m in college, Joey. I’ve been to crazier parties than this. I just wish someone thought to bring tequila or something. _That’s_ the good stuff!”

Holy freakin’ crap! Rosanna Pansino? Drinking? At _parties?!_

Joey crossed his arms. “Who are you, and what have you done with my little cinnamon roll?!”

Rosanna laughed. “I’m part Italian, Joey! I became familiar with stuff like red wine at a pretty young age.” She reached behind her and grabbed a couple of bottles of Mike’s Hard black cherry lemonade. “Here, try these. They’re better than beer, at least.”

Joey took a bottle from her, unscrewed the top and took a tiny sip. The drink tasted tart and sweet at the same time, and _holy shit_ , it hit hard! He felt like someone had just slammed the palm of their hand in his face and shoved him backwards. His eyes widened and he had to shake his head. Joey knew this would be a strong drink, but he wasn’t expecting _that!_

“ _Whooo, mama!_ ” he exclaimed. “Girl, when these things said ‘hard,’ they weren’t kidding!”

Rosanna took a sip from her own drink, and had a similar reaction. Well, only more extreme. She flailed her arms a bit and grabbed Joey’s arm to keep from falling back into the table. She let out some kind of noise that sounded like, “ _Whoouaahgh!_ ” making Joey laugh.

“That’s what you get for being a small fry!” Joey teased. “Come on, let’s go find some people we know.”

Joey pulled her up from their seat, and they both walked arm-in-arm with their drinks in their free hands. He took in the sight of all the familiar faces from high school. Alex Wassabi, Tyler Oakly, and Tana Mongaue were sharing some kind of toast with whatever was in their solo cups. Gabbie Hanna was laughing at something Liza Koshy had said. Matt Haag and Timothy DeLaGhetto were chatting about something that Joey couldn’t hear. Jesse Wellens and DeStorm Power were flirting with a couple of girls that Joey couldn’t remember the names of. Eva Gutowski and Oli White were hanging out on a large boulder near the fire.

Joey had downed half his drink by the time they finally found some of their friends. Matt, Teala, Safiya and Manny were all laughing and talking by a fallen log. 

Manny waved them over. “Hey, over here!” he called. “Come interrogate Saf with us!”

“Please don’t!” Safiya retorted. The fire wasn’t too bright over here, but he could see how red her face was getting a mile away.

“Why are we interrogating Saf?” Joey asked when they got there.

Rosanna gasped dramatically. “Is it about that boy she’s been talking to?!”

Matt grinned the widest grin possible. “Yep!”

Joey lit up. “ _What_ boy?!”

Safiya buried her face in her hands. “ _Aaaaugh nooooo!_ Not you too, Joey!”

Joey put a hand on his hip. “Hey, if my friends are seeing someone, it’s my job to deem them worthy of dating you!”

Safiya sighed. “Well, you don’t know him. He’s still back at Sanford and his name is Tyler.”

Matt jumped in. “He passed with both me and Ro. No need to worry about it, Joey.”

Joey laughed. “Well, I wanna hear about this guy!”

Teala sneered. “Yeah, keep talkin’ about him, Sophia!”

The first time Teala met Safiya, she kept mispronouncing her name as “Sophia.” To be fair, they were both really young. Sometimes Teala would still call her “Sophia” after she learned how to pronounce her name. It had since turned into a “You’re the only person who’s allowed to call me that” deal with the two of them.

Safiya rolled her eyes. “Let’s see... He’s an acapella bro, he used to be a lifeguard...”

“Does he treat you okay?” Joey asked as he took another sip of his drink.

She brightened up a bit at that question. “Yes, he does. He’s awesome.”

That was good to hear, but Joey almost couldn’t believe it. Matt and Safiya - two of the biggest nerds he’s ever met in his life - now had partners. He remembered they used to think they’d be the last people in their friend group to find partners, but there they were.

Manny gestured to Guitar Guy. “Can you guys believe that douchebag over there?  
Rosanna nodded. “Feels like there’s someone like this at every party.”

“I know, right?” Joey said. “Back at school, there’s always some frat boy sitting out on the lawn, strummin’ his strings and trying to be all sensitive.”

“Usually under a tree,” Matt said.

“Always playing the douchebag hits,” Safiya added.

“Exactly!”

Wow. If schools like Duke and Sanford had guys like that, there was no hope for anyone.

“I like this song,” Teala argued. “Is this a douchebag song?”

Manny put a hand on her shoulder. “No, it’s not, sweetie. Don’t worry about it.”

That was when Joey noticed his bottle was empty. He tossed it up and down to check how light it was, and saw he finished his drink off already.

“I’m gonna go get another Mike’s Hard,” Joey told them. “Maybe see what the others are up to.”

“Okay!” Rosanna chirped. “Tell them we said hiiiiii!”

Joey chuckled. Her own drink must have been getting to her pretty quickly.

“I will,” he assured her.

As he walked off, he heard Teala saying to the others, “Seriously, why is this a douchebag song?”

Joey dunked his empty bottle in a little plastic basket someone brought for recycling stuff, and grabbed a new black cherry lemonade. He looked at some of the beer packs to find it partially empty.

“Maybe beer is just one of those stupid things adults do,” Joey figured to himself as he cracked his lemonade open. “Like taxes and mortgages.”

He took a swig and set off to find some of his other friends. The lemonade wasn’t so bad once you got used to it. He didn’t have to go very far to find a few of the others. He found Jc, Nikita and Roi hanging out with a couple of old friends, including Andrea Russet. She and Jc were taking a couple of hits from what might have been weed. Nikita was hanging off to the side of the smoking a bit while Roi was filming them.

Roi was going to school in North Carolina for film. He pretty much carried a camera everywhere he went at this point. Roi was probably making cool short films at school and stuff, but stuff like this was usually made for fun. Roi would film little snippets of his life, and find some way to piece it all together in a cool little film montage. He mostly did that for his friends’ birthdays and stuff.

Roi pointed his camera over at Joey when he got close enough. “ _There’s_ the homecomer!”

Joey waved at the camera. “Aah, good evening, Roi’s audience!”

Andrea greeted him when he got close enough. “Joey! It’s been a while. How’s things, man?”

Joey took another sip and chirped, “Hi! I’m Joey! How’s it goin’?”

Andrea snickered. “I just asked you that. But I’m fine.”

“Really?! That’s fascinating!”

“Huh. I think that’s the first time in a while anyone’s ever called my life ‘fascinating.’”

“That’s so true!”

Andrea eventually excused herself to look for some other old friends of hers. Wait, what had Joey even been saying? That was the kind of stuff you said to strangers. Joey’s known Andrea for years. Was the alcohol getting to him or something?

Well, Nikita was laughing at it, whatever it was. “Bitch, what did you drink?”

“Just a sip of beer and, like, a Mike’s Hard and-a-half.”

“Well, try and pace it out, okay? You’re a stick. I might need to let Manny know to help keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t go too crazy.”

“Okay, okay.”

Jc looked at Joey. “Hey, man. Did you see Cole’s here?”

Joey blinked. “ _What?_ ”

Roi pointed the camera in another direction. “Oh, yeah. Over there, see?”

Joey turned to the direction the camera was facing, and… oh. Oh, god.

His stomach did a nauseous flip-flop. Cole was standing by the fire, talking with a couple of his old guy friends. He was here. At the same party as Joey.

“You gonna talk to him?” Roi asked.

Joey considered that. A while ago, he would have sprinted back to his house at the very thought of talking to his ex-boyfriend. Now that he was there, and he’d had a couple of drinks, he was feeling… better. More confident. Who cared if Cole was there? Who cared about prom night? 

“Y’know what?” Joey decided. “Yeah. Yeah, I am!”

Nikita hyped him up. “Yes, girl!”

“There ya go!” Jc added.

Roi added, “Our boy’s back and better than ever!”

“Yeah!” Joey cheered. “Why should I be weird about it?!”

Nikita made a face, like she was remembering something. “Well… Now that I’m thinking about it, you _did_ write that song after. What was it called?”

Roi snickered. “‘Go Get Dead, Angelface?’”

The three of them laughed a bit.

Joey cringed. “ _Augh!_ I thought we all agreed not to talk about ‘Go Get Dead, Angelface!’” He still felt a bit of nerves, despite himself. “Uh… maybe I should get another drink, first.”

“Just take it easy,” Niktia warned him.

“I will, I will,” Joey assured her as he walked off.

“Good luck!” Roi called to him, and Joey flashed him a thumbs-up.

“Be cool, Joey,” he whispered to himself. “Just go get a drink and be cool…”

A few minutes later, he’d downed a third Mike’s Hard, and he was probably the closest to drunk he’s ever been. But that was okay, because he felt totally fine! He stopped caring about his shitty day and everyone else and what they thought of him. That’s what parties were for, right? Loosening up and relaxing after another shitty week. And Joey felt totally cool!

Well, actually, looking at Cole again suddenly made him dizzy. Was it Cole that was making him dizzy? Ugh, he couldn’t do this. He didn’t feel so good. Maybe talking to Cole was a bad idea after all...

He saw Colleen with Manny, Matt, and Niktia. He decided to talk to them instead. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t talked to Colleen since the party started. Maybe she finally chilled out after earlier that day!

“Colleen!” Joey called out as he stumbled over to her. “There you are! I haven’ seen ya all night, girl!”

Colleen looked at him. “Huh? I was just - Oh, God. You’re drunk, aren’t you?”

“That’s why we came out here, isn’t it?” Joey slurred.

“Not really.” Colleen gestured around herself, Manny and Matt. “We all have to drive. And even if I didn’t have to, I still-”

“Well _I_ don’t have a car!” Joey exclaimed. “So, _whoopdi doopity doo for me!_ ”

Matt started laughing. “How much did you drink?!” he asked Joey.

“I dunno,” Joey replied with a shrug.

Manny sighed. “Nikita, we have failed as babysitters.”

Nikita shook her head and made a _tsk-tsk!_ sound. “We should not be chaperones for anything. Like, at all.”

“Okay, Joey,” Colleen said. “You’re drunk. Why don’t you go chill by the fire or something?”

Joey’s response to that was, “I’M GONNA GO RUN AROUND NAKED IN THE _WOOOOOOOODS!_ ” He made a grab for the bottom of his shirt and started lifting it off.

Colleen grabbed Joey’s wrists and pulled his hands back down before he could get very far. “ _Nooooooooo!_ Go. Sit. Now.”

Joey drooped. “ _Fine-uh!_ ”

And, still fully clothed, he stomped off toward a stump by the fire. But it was because _he_ wanted to sit down! Not because Little Miss Bitchy McBitcherson told him to! He plopped down on the stump, watching and listening as the flames crackled and snapped at the logs.

And just like that, Joey was alone. At a party. Surrounded by a bunch of people he used to go to school with. Drunk. In the woods.

Great combination.

And to make things even better, a certain ex-boyfriend of his walked up to him. As if this night couldn’t get any better.

“Hey, Joey,” Cole said with a wave. His stupid voice was as smooth as Joey remembered.

“Hey, Coooooole-io,” Joey slurred.

“Wow, haven’t heard that name in forever.”

“Itz been like three yearz. That’s not long at all.”

“Oh. Well… it was good to see you. I’m just back for a couple days from school, and…”

Joey stopped listening. God, did this guy ever know when to stop talking?

“Shut up already!” Joey demanded.

“What?”

“We never even kissed!”

“We didn’t?”

“No! Not _successfully!_ Y’know, I was soooooo worried you were gonna be here!”

Cole blinked. “Really?”

“My sister earlier was sayin’ all like-” He waved his arms around. “‘Awowowowoo you wereso cute together!’” His arms slumped back down. “And you’re a cute boy, Cole!”

“Oh! Uh, thanks, Joey. I-”

“But I _hate_ cute boys! Cute is the damn _worst!_ ”

Joey didn’t even realize he was yelling now. He didn’t know why he was saying all of this. Was it the alcohol? Whatever it was, he didn’t feel like shutting up. He leaped up and stood on the stump, tall enough for everyone to see him. He’s had too much of a shitty day today to not say anything!

He spread his arms out and yelled more nonsense. “And itz not my fault I’m a total trash fire! _I got nightmare eyes!_ And the lazt thing you see iz my eyes outside yer window! And then I ztab you with my knife! STAB STAB STAAAAB!” He made a bunch of stabbing gestures with his hand before spreading his arms out again. “ _BOOM!_ Dead! When the police get there, ye’re all… _N I G H T M A R E E Y E S…_ ”

“New nickname!” Nikita exclaimed from somewhere in the crowd.

“So don’t eff with _me,_ kid!” Joey yelled at… uh… who was he talking to again?

“Okay, man,” Safiya said. “I think you’re threatening people now.”

Manny seemed unfazed. “Girl, get some _water!_ ” he chortled.

Eh, what did it matter?! A lot of people were staring at him now. He might as well have been talking to everyone at the party at that point!

Joey pointed at everyone and yelled, “I’m gonna get in shape, ankick everybody’z ass! Im gonna eat everyone… everyone I see! Eff the world!”

Rosanna leaned towards MatPat. She sounded like she was whispering as loudly as she could. “ _PSSSST! Matt, don’t tell anyone, but I think Joey’s drunk!”_

Colleen sighed. “Joey, I think you need to-”

 _Shut up, Colleen!_ Joey thought. _Why should I care what you think?! You’ve been nothing but a bitch to me this entire time! Ever since I got back!_

Joey screamed at the top of his lungs, “ _EFF COLLEGE!!!_ ”

That earned a “ _Woo!_ ” from Teala, and a “Stick it to the man!” from Jc. At least _they_ were with him on this!

Joey continued. “All thoze rich boys, and daddy’s girls!” He swayed from left to right when he said, “All writing _SEX!_ And havin’ _PAPERS_ with eachother!”

“Close enough,” Matt muttered.

“And that _damn statue!_ Pointing at me, every day! Supposed to be the _founder_ or whatever! But just shapes!” 

He blinked.

_Just shapes..._

“I’m…” Joey threw his fists in the air and screamed to the Heavens: “ _I’M A BIG OL’ GARBAGE GAY!!!_ ”

A few people started bursting out in laughter, like Manny and Nikita. Others just stood there with an expression of shock on their faces. Rosanna and Matt stared at him, their mouths turned into two perfect O’s. Jc covered his mouth in surprise. Roi put his camera down and exchanged glances with Teala. Safiya lifted her free hand in disbelief and said, “ _Jesus Christ!_ ” and walked away, stopping in front of a tree and staring at it with her back to everyone. Colleen just covered her face with her hands and made some kind of noise that was a mix of fake-sobbing and groaning.

Joey went back to his speech. “And nothing’s ever gonna get any better! We never had a chance here! But I can’t go anywhere else. I’m… I’m home again. And now I can do sombthig els besides sleep, and cry alone… _hic!_ ‘Cause things aren’t juzt things here, y’know?”

A sudden wave of dizziness hit Joey like a sack full of bricks. Was he really that drunk? How much was even in his system right now?

“Oh god…” Joey muttered. “I’m so… sick. To. Death. Ugh…” He looked back at his ex. He forgot he was talking to _him_ in the first place. “Does that makesense… Cole-io?”

Cole just stared up at him. The look he gave Joey almost made him feel bad about yelling at him. The guy was innocent. He didn’t deserve that, did he?

“Joey,” Cole said. “I’m… I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I think you’re a really great-”

Joey cut him off. “ _HOME AGAIN!!!_ ” he screamed, throwing up his hands one more time as Manny and Nikita cheered him on.

All of a sudden, everything was getting way too warm, despite the crisp air. The world was spinning and kept spinning. Joey’s stomach felt like a bunch of frogs were hopping around inside, trying to get out. He felt his dinner making its way back up, and it was coming _fast!_ He threw himself off the stump and pushed past the crowd. He ended up at Safiya’s tree, which he promptly crashed into, leaned over and proceeded to throw up all over the ground. His throat burned as it all came out, and he hated himself the entire time.

Safiya shrieked from next to him. She stumbled back and screamed, “ _Joey!_ What the hell?!”

Joey glanced up to see Safiya's flabbergasted and enraged face, then looked back down. He’d apparently spewed chunks all over her combat boots. She was so shocked that she’d dropped her cup, spilling her drink on the ground.

He hated himself even more.

“Ugh…” he muttered, “tacos…”

The next thing Joey knew, he was in Colleen’s car on his way home. He avoided looking out the windows as much as he possibly could in order to avoid puking anything else up. He doubted there was anything left, but he couldn’t be too sure. Just a short glance at the passing trees made him feel lightheaded. Looking at the floor made him feel lightheaded, too. Everything made him feel like shit, both physically and emotionally.

“Joey,” Colleen barked, “I swear to God, if you puke in this car, you’re walking the rest of the way!”

He believed her. She sounded really mad, and he didn’t blame her. He owed her an apology, didn’t he? Yeah, yeah he did.

“Ib sory, Colleen,” Joey slurred. “I don even knowhat happend…”

“You got drunk off your ass after, like, what? One sip of beer and three bottles of Mike’s Hard?” Colleen turned a corner. “Seriously! Ro’s always been, like, the lightest lightweight I know, and even _she_ could handle more than that!”

Aw man… She was still mad, wasn’t she? Was she still mad? Yep, she was still mad. He really wished she wasn’t. She’s been like this ever since she saw him last night. The two of them used to be best friends. What happened?

Joey leaned back in his chair and stared out the sunroof. “We uzeto beeee beeest frendz, Colleenand I stilllove you, Colleen.”

She didn’t look over at him. “Okay. I didn’t catch any of that.”

“Remeber when you uzto call me JooooeeBroooo? And I’d call you Leeeenie Beeeenie?”

Her voice was completely deadpan when she spoke. “Oh. You mean when we were, like, ten? No. No, I don’t.”

He decided to try for another memory. “Remmebber when wewere at summer camp togethur? And we caught that tuuurrrdle?”

“Oh, yeah. Boxy the turtle. He died.”

“ _Colleeeeeeeeeeennnn…_ ” Joey whined. “Why U so madad me all da time?!”

Colleen made a sharp turn, and Joey jolted to the left in his seat. His stomach churned and everything started spinning again.

“ _Aaaugh,_ nosso fazt!” he complained. “Aw man! Girl, if I puke inere your parentz are gunna be so madat me. Tellyour Mom and Dad I’m sosorry, okay? They’re sooooo niiiiice!”

“Goddammit, Joey!”

“What?!”

“My parents are _dead!_ ”

Joey sat upright. “Whaaat?!”

“They’re _dead,_ Joey! My Mom died of cancer three days after last Christmas, and my Dad was killed in a car crash by a drunk truck driver two months later!”

Joey couldn’t believe what he was hearing! Mr. and Mrs. Ballinger were… dead?! As in, like, _dead_ dead?! Memories flashed through Joey’s head at lightning speed. Their smiling faces, the snowed-in blizzard, thousands of summer afternoons. Their faces were so fresh and alive in every single one. How could they have been dead?

“Oh noooooo!” Joey cried. “Theywer so niiiiiice! Leenie Beenie, aryou okaaaaay?”

Colleen groaned. “How did you not know this? Did you seriously not bother to find out about my dead parents?! I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since you’ve basically been MIA for months!”

Wait… that was right. Joey didn’t find out about it first hand, but he’d heard bits and pieces a few times from a couple of different people. He never wanted to believe it, but...

God, was Joey really that selfish? Had he always been like that and he just hadn’t realized it?

“Aww, Colleen,” he said. “I’m actin lika jerk. Aryu mad at me?”

Colleen sighed. “What happened to you? You used to be smart. You used to be cool. You used to be worth talking to. Now look at you! You’re just a pathetic loser who dropped out of college, and now you’re living in your dad’s attic!”

Joey pressed the side of his face against the window. He tried not to pay too much attention to the houses and the streetlights as they drove past. He could feel a tear somewhere between his cheek and the cold glass.

Colleen didn’t let up. “Why did you even come back here anyway? Oh, right. What was it you said? College just ‘didn’t work out’ for you? What’s that even supposed to mean? Was it too hard for you or something? Was it inconvenient? Were you not in the mood?”

Joey sniffled.

“People would kill for that, you know,” Colleen snapped. “I know _I_ would. I’d throw you out of this moving car bar-tender-style right now it meant I could go to college!”

The tears finally fell. Before Joey could stop himself, he was sobbing and blubbering like an idiot. The confusing thing was that Joey didn’t even feel like he deserved to feel bad. At that point, he should have known what a horrible person he was and accepted it. And that only made him feel worse.

The car came to a stop in front of his house.

“We’re here,” Colleen told him. “Get the hell out of my… Joey?”

He was still crying. He felt like complete and utter shit. Colleen was right - he shouldn’t have even bothered coming home. Why was he in her car? Why did he go to that party? What was he doing back in Everlock? What made him think everything would just go back to normal when he just kept messing everything up?

_Everything sucks forever!_

“Joey…” Colleen’s tone changed. She didn’t sound pissed anymore. She sounded more... regretful. “Joey, I - I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it, I…” She stared down at the steering wheel and whispered, “Dammit, Colleen.”

With that, she opened the driver’s side door and got out of the car. Joey watched with blurry eyes as she made her way across the front of the car and over to the passenger side where he was sitting.

She opened the door and held out her hand. “Come on. Let me help you in.”

Joey wiped his face with one arm, and took Colleen’s hand with the other. She helped him out of his seat and into the night. He felt a little better now that he was out in the fresh air again. She eased Joey’s arm around her shoulders, and put her free arm around his waist.

“Here,” she said. “Lean on me, okay?”

Joey put some of his weight against her, leaving enough for him to try and walk. She led him up the driveway slowly and carefully. Why was she doing this? Didn’t she hate him? She was yelling her face off at him not two minutes ago.

“Did you get everything out in the woods?” Colleen asked. “Not that stuff you were ranting about. But, like, puke-wise?”

“I think so…” Joey replied, hating how pathetic he sounded.

His stomach still felt weird, but he doubted he had anything left in it. Maybe he puked his entire stomach out in the woods. Maybe it landed on Safiya’s shoes and she kicked it away, and he was so drunk that he didn’t notice.

“I think I ruined Safiya’s boots,” he muttered. He wasn’t slurring anymore, which was probably a good sign.

“Yeah. They were pretty cute, too.”

“You think she’s still mad?”

“Probably not. She’s never really been the kind of person to hold onto something like that.”

Maybe that was true, but Joey still felt like garbage. He’d just completely embarrassed himself in front of everyone, and probably ruined the party.

“Hey,” Colleen said. “We’re meeting up in Towne Centre tomorrow to say goodbye to everyone heading back up to school. Do you wanna come?”

“I thought you hated me…”

“I don’t hate you. Besides, they’re _your_ friends, too.”

Something about the way Colleen said that made Joey feel a little better. _They_ were the ones who invited him out, after all. Not to mention he still had plans with Manny and Nikita before they left. He just hoped they wouldn’t hold tonight against him.

“Do you have a key?” Colleen asked as they got up to the porch.

Joey pointed at a little rabbit statue by the door. “There’s a key hidden in that little statue there. There’s a secret compartment at the bottom.”

“I’m gonna let you go for a sec, okay?”

“Okay.”

She eased Joey off of her, and knelt down next to the statue. She picked it up, moved the little metal cover attached by a single screw, and the spare key fell out.

“Smart,” Colleen commented.

“It was my Mom’s,” Joey explained.

Colleen unlocked the door and placed the key back in it’s hiding spot. She took hold of Joey again, and led him inside. Nicole and Dad were probably asleep by now, but the kitchen light was still on. Maybe they left it on for him?

“Huh…” Colleen mused. “This house hasn’t changed that much.”

“Well, it’s only been a couple years since you’ve been here.”

“True.”

Joey guided her up to the attic as quietly as he could without disturbing anyone. She held onto him the entire way, not letting him trip over his own feet. Joey was too exhausted to change, so he just kicked off his shoes and flopped down onto his bed.

Colleen glanced around Joey’s room. “Just like I remember,” she said.

“Mmhmm…”

Joey crawled between the sheets and let Colleen tuck the blanket over him. He let his eyes close as he curled up into a ball. He suddenly felt like such a kid, but he was too tired to care anymore.

“There you go, bud,” she said.

“I’m sorry, Colleen… I’m such a mess…”

“Y’know… whatever. It’s not your fault. You’re just a kid.”

“Girl, I’m the same age as you,” he retorted, but he wasn’t using any attitude.

Technically, Colleen was actually about six months older than him. But he wasn’t about to get too specific about it.

“Yeah,” Colleen said, “well, I stayed here and got older while you pretty much went off and stayed the same.”

He let himself feel safe in his bed, and sleep was finally taking him. He heard Colleen sigh, followed by the _click!_ of the lamp attached to his headboard.

“Night, JoeBro,” Colleen said as he finally drifted off...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof... rough night, am I right?  
> Whew, this chapter was a LOT longer than I thought it would be, but it was fun to write! I listened to Mike Krol's music throughout making it, and I really loved it!! I know the story started out a little slow, but it starts picking up around here. I'm looking forward to writing more, and I hope you guys like the rest of the story!!
> 
> Next time: Joey's dreams start taking a strange turn...


	7. Nightmare Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Songs used in this chapter:
> 
> "Durkillsberg" from the Night in the Woods soundtrack - Played throughout this chapter.

_ In his dream, Joey was walking through the woods. He couldn't quite figure out where he was at first, though. The colors looked weird. Well, maybe "weird" wasn’t the right word. They gave off the impression of nighttime, but they were more vivid than a normal nighttime scene might be. He was surrounded by various hues of blues and purples that were supposed to represent the trees and the sky at night. _

_ He also found himself holding a baseball bat. But it wasn’t just a regular bat. He had a feeling it belonged to Nikita. She usually kept a bat handy, ever since she, Joey and some of their other friends played baseball in middle school. He wasn’t sure why he was holding this bat specifically, or what he would have been doing with it out in the middle of the woods. _

_ But the strangest thing of all were the sounds he was hearing. It almost sounded like… singing..? He could almost swear he heard a voice from somewhere. It rang out in the world around him, singing a longing melody, like it was calling out to him. Whatever it was, it was starting to creep him out. The fact that he was alone in the woods at night definitely didn’t help with that either. _

_ He started to run down the path and out of the woods. For some reason, probably because it was a dream, he wasn’t getting winded or tired. When he emerged, he was in a town that was different from Everlock, but something about it still felt familiar. He stopped in the middle of the street and tried to gather his bearings. It looked like some kind of urban town with tall brick buildings. Several cars were parked along the streets, and a series of stark orange and yellow street lights cut through the dark colors of the rest of the dream. On top of one of the buildings was a large neon pink sign that read the name of the town: Durkillsberg. _

_ Durkillsberg… That was when Joey realized where he was. It was his old college town. _

_ Wait, what was he doing back here? Why was he here?! He whirled all around, trying to gather his bearings. He thought he was done with this place! He thought he was done with college! He  _ hated  _ this place! He hated it! _

_ He was so angry, he could just… he could just break something! _

_ Hold up. This wasn’t the real Dirkillsberg. This was just a dream. There were  _ _ no  _ _ real places.  _ _ No  _ _ people.  _ _ No consequences. _

_ It was a dream. It was all a dream… and he had a bat… _

_ “I can do whatever I want here..!” he exclaimed. His voice echoed through the darkness. _

_ He took a step forward, then another, and another. He felt his anger and fear and sadness coursing through his veins, filling him up with adrenaline. He took off running toward the first streetlight, and leaped up into the air. He felt light as a feather as he soared up to the lightbulb. He swung his bat and CRASH!!! The lightbulb was smashed to pieces! Glass shards flew sporadically, but none of them scratched him. _

_ He landed back on the pavement, one knee on the ground, and straightened back up. He felt powerful. Strong. Alive. He felt like he could do anything. _

_ He sprinted up to the cars parked along the sidewalk and banged his bat left and right against all of them. Windows were shattered, metal was totaled, mirrors were ripped off, hubcaps were knocked away, and tires were slashed. _

_ He used his new dream-jumping abilities to fling himself up onto the rooftops. He ran up to the sign and started smashing the letters one by one. He skipped a few because he got impatient, but he didn’t stop until the letters he managed to hit were reduced to bits of flashing bulbs. He hardly noticed the remaining letters spelled “KILLER” as he continued his path of destruction. _

_ He kept running along the street, not tiring out for a second. He rammed his bat into trash cans, knocking them over and spilling their contents all over the ground. He completely obliterated a public mailbox, causing letters to fly every which way. He banged up a flashy diner sign until it was nothing but a couple of poles and a bunch of broken glass. _

_ It was as if whatever was singing to him was sending him endless amounts of energy in the process. He didn’t care about anything. Nothing else mattered. All he wanted to do was run and jump and destroy! _

_ He was approaching a different part of town when he saw it. _

_ The statue.  _

_ That goddamned statue of the founder of… whatever he was the founder of. Joey never even bothered to find out what the guy founded. It was some old abstract project that a bunch of art students made years ago, and now it was worn and rusted from age. It was pointing at him like it always did. _

_ Shapes.  
_

_ Old, rusted shapes pointing down at him. Staring at him. Mocking him. _

_ Why?! _

_ Why why why was it always pointing at him?! _

_ He hated that statue! He hated it so much! _ _   
_

_ “Joey! SMASH!” _

_ He charged at the statue and flung himself in the air with all his might. With a swing of his bat, he heard a satisfying “PONG!” as it hit against the rusty metal. He found that he was able to stay in the air for a split second each time he swung, like some kind of double-jump sequence in a video game. He swung his bat again and again, staying in place with every swing until a loud CLASH! rang out around him. He was thrown backwards by some invisible force as one of the legs of the statue fell to the ground in pieces. He landed on his back and got up to see the statue leaning heavily to one side. _

_ He wasn’t satisfied. He moved onto the next leg and did the same until that broke apart and the same force knocked Joey back. The torso crashed onto the ground, and Joey got back to it. He kept crashing and banging and slamming until the same invisible impact would knock Joey away. And each time, he got up and threw himself back at the statue with just as much strength. Finally, all he had to do was finish off the statue's head. He delivered more devastating blows, not letting up for a second. One last explosion of force, stronger than any of the others, threw Joey and the remnants of the statue into the air. He let go of his bat as he screamed and fell back down to the ground. _

_ This was when the dream started to feel more real. All the air was knocked right out of Joey’s lungs as he hit the grass. He struggled to breath, or move, or do anything. Hunks of metal were raining down from the sky, and he had to roll a round to avoid a few. He looked back up into the air to see the eyes of the statue. The head hurled down towards him and- _

_ Pitch black darkness swallowed him whole, and the singing stopped. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short update for your Sunday :)
> 
> Finally I get to start writing one of my favorite parts of the game! I'll save the gushing for a later chapter, but I really love the dream sequences!! I hope I can do 'em justice.
> 
> Next time: Joey feels the previous night pretty hard, and has a talk with Nicole. Also - "Crimes?" "Crimes." And we get a visit from an old ~~headache~~ face.


	8. Crimes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Songs used in this chapter:
> 
> "Girl - Acoustic" by SYML - played in Manny's car after, _"Nikita connected her phone to the aux cord, put in an address, and started some music._  
>  "Food Donkey" - Played when the gang gets into the Food Donkey

Joey’s eyes flew open, and he sat bolt upright. Well, _that_ was a weird one! He never had a dream that vivid before...

Almost instantly, his head started rushing and his vision blurred for a split second. He fell back down onto the pillow, and rubbed his eyes and head. It couldn’t have been later than 10 AM, but he already wanted to go back to sleep forever.

“Never drink again, Joey…” he chastised himself, “or go out in public… or do anything…”

Ugh, he felt awful. He probably looked awful, too. His head felt like it was about to split in half, and his tongue was probably going to dry out and fall out of his mouth at any second. Every light was too bright, every sound was too loud, and everything was absolute garbage.

He barely even remembered what happened the night before. He remembered wandering around the party, sort of talking to Cole, throwing up, and generally making a total idiot out of himself. He remembered Colleen yelling at him, too, but he couldn’t recall many of her specific words. He remembered the gist of it, though. He also remembered she helped him inside, and that she said he didn’t hate him, so that was nice, at least.

Joey groaned loudly and rolled himself into a blanket burrito. He didn’t stop rolling until he fell off his bed and onto the floor. He let out some sort of weird noise as he hit the hardwood.

He let out a heavy sigh. “I’m gonna burn this freakin’ room down. With me in it. Live out the rest of eternity as a shrieking ghost.”

He eased himself to his feet and trudged toward the bathroom. That was when he got a look at himself in the mirror.

“Oh, good, I was right. I look like absolute hell.” He narrowed his eyes and pointed at his reflection. “ _Buuurrrrrn iiiiiit!_ ” he hissed.

His shower wasn’t that better. The water was either too hot or too cold, and he practically had to force his arms to lift up. He didn’t really feel like trying when he got back to his room, so he threw on a pair of jeans and a random sweater and fell back on his bed. Oh, well; his outfit didn’t look that bad. And he felt a little better now that he was actually somewhat clean.

His phone pinged on his nightstand with an unread text from Nikita, and a voicemail from Colleen. He decided to listen to the voicemail first. He still felt a little bad about some of the stuff they said to each other last night. He hoped it wouldn’t be too bad.

_“Hey, Joey. It’s me. I wanted to say I’m sorry about last night. Hope you’re feeling okay. Um… so I’ll be at work until, like, three thirty. Everyone’s gonna start heading back around 4, so hopefully we’ll see you there. Jc and Teala said they were down to hang out with us later if you want. So… yeah. Bye, Joey.”_

Joey smiled. Maybe he was melting her heart after all. He entered the Messages app and read Nikita’s text.

 **Troublemaker:** hey joey, you okay? last night was p crazy. colleen says she got you home safe tho. text me if youre still up for crimes, i don’t want you to push yourself too much. manny says drink some water, so drink some water.

 **Troublemaker:** no seriously, hydrate your ass after you finish reading this.

Manny and Nikita might have had a bit of a Mean Girls reputation, but they were both really sweet once you got to know them. Joey appreciated the two of them for the thousandth time. He sent Nikita a quick text saying he was still up for crimes. She immediately texted back saying they’d swing by his house around noon, and gave him another reminder to drink water.

Down in the kitchen, Nicole was reading at the bar while something was on the stove.

“Morning, Nicole,” he said as he came down the stairs. He immediately went to the fridge and took out a water bottle.

“All day Nicole, everyday, Nicole.” She turned to face him. “Oh, wow. You look like crap.”

“Mmhmm…” 

“Rough night, huh?”

Joey sighed and plopped into a seat next to her. “Is it that obvious?”

“No, I’m just saying you look like crap because I love you.”

“M’kay.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

Joey put his head in his hand. There wasn’t really much use keeping secrets like this from Nicole. She probably knew he was still slightly hung over and he was feeling bad about something.

“I got drunk at the party last night,” he said. “Like, embarrassingly drunk. And I saw Cole…”

“Really? Did you talk to him?”

“Kinda? Sorta? I don’t know.”

“Well, he’s a jerk.”

“No, he’s not. Or he wasn’t… I dunno. I just started yelling like an idiot. Then Colleen and I had a fight, but I think we’re okay now. At least, I hope we are.”

Nicole nodded, taking in every word. “Joey, you’re an adult now. You can drink at a party if you want. I won’t get mad at you for it. Just be careful next time, okay?”

“Don’t worry, girl. I’m never touching alcohol again.”

Nicole laughed, and Joey was once again happy that Nicole was here. She sort of filled the roll for Mom after she'd left. Their parents got divorced when Joey was eight, but it didn’t really bother him that much at first. He'd just thought of it as Mom and Dad living in different houses. She was still the same Mom who'd loved ghost stories, and read them to him as bedtime stories whenever he stayed at her house. When Joey was almost twelve, Mom had abruptly announced that she was moving to another state. She’d call them every so often, and then the calls turned into birthday cards. By the time Joey was thirteen, she’d stopped talking to them all together.

“So, you up to anything today?” Nicole asked him, tapping his water bottle.

He was so lost in his own head that he almost didn’t notice he hadn’t drank anything yet. He really wished he’d stop doing that. 

He took tiny sips of his water. “I’m gonna hang out with Manny and Nikita in a couple of hours. Then Jc, Teala, Colleen and I are gonna see the rest of our friends off this afternoon.”

“It’s really cool that all of you guys are still as close as you are.”

“I thought they all forgot about me, or like, didn’t care anymore. I barely talked to them at all back in school. I still feel a little bad about it.”

“Well, there are only so many hours and so many days in our lives.”

Joey snickered. “Why are you suddenly talking like a fortune cookie?”

“Friendships are like trees, young Joseph. You need to water them in order for them to grow. And we only have so much water.”

“Have you ever watered a tree?”

“Nope, the rain does that.”

An alarm on Nicole’s phone went off and she went back over to the stove. She picked up the spatula and flipped a couple of slices of French toast onto a plate.

“Want some?” she asked.

“Maybe a little. I’m not super hungry right now.”

“That’s okay, but I want you to try and get something in your stomach.”

Joey got a couple of slices, and they both took their plates into the living room and spent the next couple of hours watching shows together. Joey was glad that Nicole was so willing to do this kind of thing now that they were older. It occurred to him that siblings were probably able to get closer when they were adults as opposed to the dumb fights they have when they’re kids.

He just wished he knew why she was back. She’d graduated college, she had a degree, and she didn’t need to live at home anymore. He brushed it off and told himself that he’d cross that bridge some other time. He was still too tired to worry about anything right now. Besides, he was about to do some crimes in a couple hours. For right now, he just wanted to eat breakfast and watch stupid early 2000’s sitcoms with his sister.

Some time in the middle of season 2 of _Drake and Josh,_ Joey got a call from Manny. 

He answered the phone with a, “Hello?”

_“Your getaway driver has arrived!”_

Joey laughed. “Awesome! I’ll be right out.”

Nikita’s voice spoke to him. _“Joey.”_

“Yes?”

 _“Crimes, bitch. Crimes…”_ And they hung up. 

“That your dudes?” Nicole asked.

“That’s my dudes,” Joey confirmed, standing up and stretching himself out.

“Alright, you guys have a good time out there. And try not to get into any trouble!”

Joey laughed as he headed out. “Have some faith in your brother, Nicole!”

“Yeah, yeah. Love you.”

“You too, twenty-four-hour Nicole!”

“Seven days a week!”

With that, he opened the door and stepped outside. The weather that day was about right for the upcoming autumn. The sky was overcast, and it looked like it was trying to rain. A chill in the wind made him glad he decided to wear a sweater that day.

Manny’s car was parked at the bottom of the driveway, and he jogged down to meet them. Nikita was already in the passenger seat, grinning ear to ear.

“He’s alive!” Nikita exclaimed when he sat in his seat. “How’s it going, Nightmare Eyes?”

Joey sighed. “Please never mention that name again.”

“Sorry. You doing okay?”

Manny looked in the rear-view mirror. “You got pretty wild last night.”

“I’m alright,” Joey replied. “I was feeling pretty bad earlier this morning, but I watched some dumb shows with Nicole. I feel a little less like hurling myself into traffic now.”

“Maybe some fresh air will help,” Nikita said. “Or, like, as fresh as the air gets around here.”

Manny laughed. “The air here is more mine-flavored than anything.”

“Delicious,” Joey commented.

“Gotta get your daily dose of mine-protein somehow, right?” Manny turned back to Joey. “Don’t worry, I’ll drive slowly on the way there.”

“I’ll be okay. Thanks.”

On that note, Manny started the car and drove off. Nikita connected her phone to the aux cord, put in an address, and started some music. It was mostly chill, sweet songs that almost made him want to fall asleep.

“This is a good playlist,” Joey said.

“There’s a whole hangover playlist on Spotify,” Manny told him. “I introduced Nikita over here to it after she came back from a party and woke up fantastically hung over.”

Nikita sighed. “That wasn’t a good day. I pretty much spent the entire span of twelve hours in bed and attempting to eat a single bagel.”

“Did you finish it?” Joey asked.

“Nope.”

By that time, they’d just arrived in the Towne Centre. Joey looked out the window and saw Jc wiping down some tables outside The Grounds. Not much further, he saw Colleen and her siblings moving some boxes in from a truck into their parents’ store. Joey couldn’t help but feel a little guilty seeing his friends working. Logically, he hadn’t even been home that long, but he felt bad about not having a job anymore. It was one of those “If I’m not working, I’m being lazy” moods that he hated.

He kept staring out the window and listening to the music until Manny pulled into an intersection and stopped at a redlight. That was when Joey’s entire world came crashing down. Just outside the car was Pastabilities - the best place in the known galaxy for pizza. And placed on the front door were two signs. One of them read, “Thank you for 84 amazing years, Everlock. Sincerely, Sally and Joe.” The other was a big red “Closed” sign.

“What?!” Joey pressed his hands and face against the car window. “No! No no no no _no!_ Pastabilities is gone!”

Manny exclaimed, “Bitch, what?!”

“Are you kidding me?!” Nikita demanded.

This was terrible! No more pizza delivery! No more “Big Sal!” No more special birthdays! 

Joey banged his forehead against the glass. “This is worse than when we found out the flood a few years back took out the mini-golf ice cream place!”

Nikita sank in her seat. “Aww! I miss that place!”

“Right?” Manny added. “Ice cream and put-put on summer nights, all washed away…”

Joey groaned. Now he had another reason to be sad. The light turned green and they drove off again, leaving the remnants of the great Pastabilities behind.

“I’m so freakin’ sad right now!” Joey lamented.

“Don’t worry, guys,” Nikita assured them. “You’ll feel better once we get to where we’re going.”

“Where _are_ we going?” 

“You’ll see,” she assured them slyly.

“Okay… Not suspicious at all?”

The music eventually got to him, and his eyes started closing. He figured he probably had a little while before they’d get to where they were going. He leaned against the window and tried to get a little sleep.

Before he knew it, he felt someone shaking his shoulder.

“Up and at ’em, honey!” Manny exclaimed.

Joey stirred awake, feeling a little annoyed. He’d barely gotten that far into his nap yet!

“Whasgoin’on?” he muttered groggily.

“We’re here!” Nikita exclaimed.

Joey looked out the window to see where they were, and he was greeted with a surprise. They were parked right next to the abandoned Food Donkey. The building bordered the woods and the train tracks.

The three of them got out of the car, and Nikita went to the trunk. She opened it up and pulled out her old aluminum baseball bat. It was the same one she used to carry around when they were playing baseball in eighth grade, or going on crimes. It also happened to be the same one from Joey’s dream the previous night.

Nikita smiled at her bat. “I missed you, Cynder.”

Yeah, she named her bat “Cynder.”

Joey laughed. “Nikita, you brought Cynder?”

“Uh, _yeah._ We need _something_ to bang up the place if we’re gonna get the mascots.”

Joey perked up. “Mascots?!”

“Yep,” Manny answered. “Those poor guys have been sitting in there all alone for too long.”

The store used to have three animal mascots that they’d keep on a little display. There was a frog, a pig, and a rabbit, and they were all dressed up as farmers. Joey used to love those things as a kid, but as he got older, they started to creep him out a bit. Now that he was back, the store was closed, and it’s been years since he last saw them, he was ready to make the Grand Council of Food Donkey Mascots a legacy!

Niktia put her hand on her hip. “We’ve been livin’ too clean, boys. The three of us run this town. It’s time we took back our throne!”

Manny rolled his eyes. “And who was the one keeping you from vandalizing stuff for the past year, girl?”  
“Details, details.”

Okay, he was double-in now! He felt like they were kids again, and the three of them were getting into trouble like they used to. This was gonna be great!

They started their way toward the old shop. If Joey wasn’t surprised at the sight of the old playground, this really threw him off. The last time Joey saw this place, it was a bustling supermarket. Now it was just an abandoned brick building. Trash littered the parking lot, and a few rogue grocery carts were still in the cart parks. The slogan painted on the side, “Heart of Hometown since 1978,” was chipping in places. The sign high above the building that used to be lit up was dark and slightly broken. It looked like something out of a zombie apocalypse movie.

“Wow…” Joey said. “This is kinda depressing. Look at this place...”

“I know, right?” Nikita replied. “It was a huge shock for everyone.”

Manny nodded. “It kinda sprang out of nowhere after we found out about the Snack Falcon.”

Joey took it all in. “I think in, like, second grade, we colored Food Donkey themed pictures for Thanksgiving. And they put them up in the windows.”

“I remember that,” Nikita said. “There was a donkey dressed up as a turkey in one of them.”

“Yeah. Horrifying.”

Manny shook his head. “Thanks for reminding me about that nightmare, bitches.”

“What did they do with all the food?” Joey wanted to know.

“I bet donkey-turkeys got it all,” Nikita suggested.

Manny whirled in their direction. “Okay, will you two stop with the donkey-turkeys?!”

They all laughed, and they stopped in front of the entrance.

“So…” Joey muttered, “why don’t we go in?”

Nikita banged her free hand on the glass and shouted, “Hey! We’re here!”

“What are you doing?”

“Okay, I got his attention. Here he comes.”

“Who?”

Manny said, “You don’t know him, I don’t think.”

“Try me.”

In a moment, one of the doors opened with a loud _CREAK!_ Joey cringed at the sound and the amount of rust that must have been between the door and the wall. The three of them went inside, and it was almost as disheartening as the outside.

Most of the furnishing was still there, including checkout desks, shelves, and empty fruit stands. Aside from that, the place was completely deserted. There were still some crumpled up coupons and price tags on the ground, and everything was bare. Not a single piece of food anywhere. And the smell…

Joey scrunched up his face. “Oh, God, what _is_ that?” 

“Glue,” a guy’s voice said.

Joey recognized that voice. “Oh, no. Is that-” He turned to see who it was that opened the door for him and scowled. “Ugh. Effing Colin Wentworth.” 

Colin sneered at them. “Sup, ladies? You lost, or something?”

Great. Out of every single person he could have seen this weekend, why did it have to be _that_ asshole?

Joey folded his arms. “I remember you, you know.”

“How nice of you,” Colin said. “And I bet everyone remembers _you_ .” 

“So, that teacher sue you yet?” Manny asked. Apparently, _he_ remembered Colin, too.

“Which one?”

Joey scoffed. “I think he means the one you locked in a closet during Christmas break?”

“That’s the one,” Manny confirmed.

Colin rolled his eyes smugly. “That guy can’t even fit in small rooms anymore. He was always a wuss. Just needed someone to bring it out.”

That’s what Joey hated about Colin. He was always a huge pain in everybody’s ass back in high school. He picked on everyone - like, literally everyone. The guy thought he was God’s gift to the world. And he actually wanted to go into the military after school was over. 

“A deal’s a deal, Colin,” Nikita barked, tapping her nails against her bat. “Where are the mascots?”

“In the back,” he replied. “Any of you remember Beth Holested?”

“Kind of?” Manny replied.

“She was in here a few months ago and swears one of them talked.”

“Seriously?” Joey asked.

“I’d take it with a grain of salt. She was always weird.”

Hmm. Haunted animatronic mascots? Something told Joey that Matt would get a kick out of that.

Colin led them through the store and toward the back. If the first glance of the inside wasn’t disheartening enough, seeing all the empty aisles and lonely displays certainly was. Joey remembered running up and down the aisles with his sister when they were little. It really sucked that places like this with so many happy memories were closing down. It almost felt like a kick in the face telling him to grow the hell up already.

Once they were in the very back of the store, Colin rattled the doorknob to the storage room. He slammed his fist against the door and exclaimed, “Goddammit!”

Joey tried to peer over. “What?”

“Someone locked the effing door!” Colin griped. “Goddammit, I bet it was Beth. Or that train trash, Levi.” He kicked the door. “They’d better not have stolen anything!”

“From the abandoned grocery store,” Joey pointed out. “With the unlocked doors.”

Manny sighed and turned to Nikita. “Probably should have brought your lock-picking stuff.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, holding up Cynder. “We have all the lock-picking stuff we need right here.”

“Or we could look for a key lying around,” Joey offered.

“Well, yeah, sure - if you wanna be boring about it.”

Colin snapped, “Just help me open the damn thing!”

Nikita rolled her eyes and stepped toward the door.

“Well,” Manny said with just a hint of sass, “while you two are vandalizing property, Joey and I are gonna go find a key.”

“Whatever,” Colin decided.

While Manny and Joey headed for an office, Colin and Nikita started trying to break the door down. 

“Why is this guy with us?” Joey asked when they were out of earshot.

Manny shrugged. “Nikita said he had an in.”

“What in?”

“He was able to get in through the front door.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you he was coming,” Manny apologized. “We wanted you to have fun today.”

“I _am_ having fun,” Joey assured him. “It might be a little different than I was expecting, but I’m still glad you guys thought to bring me.”

“Of course. I’d never leave you and our girl hanging. If I’m being honest, though, this is the first time we’ve done this since high school.”

“Really?”

Manny nodded. “Since we moved to New York for school, we had to be careful about what we did. Well… as far as the law goes, at least. We couldn’t exactly stay in the school if we got caught doing this kind of stuff. We had to chill out a lot, especially Nikita.”

“Wow. Nikita, chilling out?”

Manny chuckled. “Unbelievable, I know. But she’s been really stressed out lately. I think she’s been missing Bretman, too.”

“Aw, really?”

“Yeah. She probably needed this to help her get her mind off things. I know she’s happy to see you again, too.”

Nikita might not have been the type to get super open with her feelings, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Joey could totally understand why she would want this. Hell, part of the reason he agreed to hang out with them was because _he_ wanted some kind of distraction from the past several months.

They arrived at yet another unlocked door that led to an office. It didn’t take very long for them to find a wall lined with keys, one of them labeled “Storage.”

“Ah, there she is!” Joey said as he grabbed the key. “I will unlock your ass!”

 _“What?!”_ Manny chortled.

“No questions! Onward!”

The boys rushed out of the office to find Nikita and Colin still going at it with the door. They were pounding on that puppy like their lives depended on it. Joey could almost swear he could see a vein popping out of Colin’s head from where he was standing.

“Yo, idiots!” Manny said. “We found a key!”

“I’m not an idiot!” Nikita retorted.

“Sorry - idiot and Nikita, we found a key!”

They stopped banging on the door, breathing heavily.

“You did?” Nikita asked.

“Yeah,” Joey replied. “It was chilling in an office.”

Colin scoffed and wiped his forehead. “No wonder this place went under. They left keys all over the damn place.”

Joey stepped forward and unlocked the door. He had to shove it with his shoulder to get it open, but when it did, it was like the glue smell punched him in the face.

They all descended a couple of flights of stairs and to the storage area. Several old boxes of canned goods and old soft drinks were piled on top of one another. There were more cobwebs than there was a wall, and the whole place was covered in dust. 

“Looks like we’re not totally left with nothing,” Manny pointed out. “Check it out. The frog animatronic is still here.”

He was right. Among the boxes, there was a box full of parts for an animatronic, anthropomorphic frog. The visible portions told them that he still had the same flannel shirt, overalls and muddy rainboots. He even had the straw hat, but it was starting to come apart.

“What happened to the other mascots?” Joey wanted to know. “The rabbit and the pig?”

Colin shrugged. “Hell if I know. Some drugheads probably took them.”

“Or they were sold?” Nikita guessed. “Like, for parts or whatever?”

Manny made a face at the frog. “This thing is a lot bigger than I remember.”

“I know,” Joey agreed. “I remember these things were bigger than my Dad when I was younger.”

“I used to have dreams about that frog.”

Colin smirked. “Sex dreams, probably. Best you could get, probably.”

Okay, that was it! What right did this guy have to be here?! What right did he have to say that kind of stuff to Joey’s friends?!

Joey clenched his fists and yelled at the top of his lungs, _“Wentworth! Bite my entire ass!”_

Colin furrowed his brows. “…What?”

“Go legally brain dead! From lack of oxygen! Due to choking on my _entire ass!_ ”

Manny and Nikita burst out laughing at the sound of that.

Colin threw up his hands. “Okay, you know what?! This was a waste of time. You ladies can carry that thing out on your own!” And with that, the mighty Colin “Can Choke on Joey’s Entire Ass” Wentworth stormed out.

“Colin!” Joey called to him. “At least help us carry this out!”

“Get found dead, punks!” he yelled back.

Nikita tapped Cynder some more. “Psh. He says punks like it’s a bad thing.”

“What deal did you two even make with him?” Joey asked.

Manny explained, “We told him he could have whatever money was hidden in the store.”

Nikita nodded. “If there _was_ any, he probably got it all before we came here.”

Joey sighed. Whatever, he was just glad they were done with Colin. Now all they had to do was get the frog out of here without breaking anything.

Within minutes, the three of them were back at the base of the stairs. The box ended up being two heavy for one person to carry on their own, so they had to push it on the way there. Joey and Nikita were holding the box in the front, while Manny brought up the rear. 

“Our neighbors are gonna think we were doing drugs,” Nikita said.

“Or, at least gluing the hell out of some shit,” Manny added.

Joey spoke. “Okay. We gotta take this one step at a time. Do not _drop_ this!”

They nodded, and got ready to lift the box.

“Okay, on three…” Joey said. “One… two… three!”

With a lot of heaving, they lifted the box up and made their way up the stairs. It was a lot heavier that Joey expected. It felt like he was lifting a heavy-ass box full of rocks!

“Pivot!” Manny yelled in a strained voic when they had to turn. “Pivot! Pivot! _PIVOT!_ ”

“Manny!” Joey exclaimed. “Your references are appreciated but they’re not helping!”

“Sorry!”

They continued to haul the box up the stairs, going painfully slow so they wouldn’t drop it. With each step, Joey grew more worried that their arms might give out. By the time they were halfway up the stairs, he was almost ready to drop the box and fall to the floor, but he didn’t give up. 

Finally, after what felt like forever, they made it to the top of the stairs. The way out was a lot easier for them now that they were walking on an even ground. They carried the box all the way back out to Manny’s car and shoved it into the trunk. Nikita leaned against the car, Manny had his hands on his knees, and Joey needed to crack his back.

Nikita sighed and said, “My arms are dead, dude,”

“My everything is dead,” Joey added.

“Yep,” Manny muttered. “Gonna be feeling that for a while… Sorry this didn’t turn out that well, Joey.”

“Are you kidding?” Joey replied lightheartedly. “I mean, I’m sore and I smell like glue, but I had a good time! I feel like this is the first time we actually got to hang out in a while. Just the three of us.”

That made Nikita smile. “Thanks for agreeing to this, Joey. We missed making trouble with you.”

“I missed you guys, too.”

Manny checked his phone. “Looks like we need to get going. It’s almost time to head back to hell - uh, school.”

Joey drooped. “Aw, already?”

“Afraid so. Did you wanna come to Townie Centrie with us?”

“Yeah - Colleen told me about it last night. I’d be happy to see you all off.”

Nikita smirked. “Can’t wait to get rid of us, huh?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

“Well, too bad! You’d better believe you haven’t seen the last of us, Graceffa.” Niktia turned on her heels and made her way to the passenger seat. 

Manny gave Joey a small smile as he headed for the driver’s seat. Joey climbed in the back, and they made their way out of the parking lot and back into town.

As they drove, Joey couldn’t help but notice how different Manny and Nikita seemed. They were still them, but it felt like they weren’t quite the people who he grew up with. As much as he didn’t want to worry about it, he hoped that wouldn’t hinder their friendship too much.

He also hoped Manny’s car wouldn’t smell like glue forever after today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Video game aus are a lot more difficult to write than I thought, especially with sequences like this, but I'm doing my best :)
> 
> Next time: The gang bids each other goodbye for now, leaving Jc, Teala, Colleen and Joey in Everlock. The four of them hang out at the mall, and have a couple of conversations about life. Oh, and a giant fish squirts water at innocent bystanders.


	9. The Old Gods of the Fort Lucenne Mall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick heads up: this chapter has a couple of mentions of religion, family arguments, and harassment. Take care my dudes
> 
> Songs used for this chapter:  
> "Rainy Day" from the Night in the Woods soundtrack: Played at the beginning of the chapter while the gang is saying goodbye  
> "WitchDagger" from the Night in the Woods soundtrack: Starts at _"The inside of the URevolution was absolute Edgy-Teen Heaven."_

It was almost 4 o’clock by the time Joey, Manny and Nikita arrived in Towne Centre. The clouds overhead finally decided to let a little rain out, but it seemed more like a mist. It even seemed to get a bit colder since that morning. The rest of their friends were talking by a fountain in the center of a plaza.

“There you guys are!” Matt exclaimed. “We were starting to worry.”

Teala made a face. “Does anyone else smell glue?”

Oh. Yeah. That’s what Joey was afraid of.

Manny spoke. “We were busy with some craft stuff before we got here.”

Safiya gave him a look. “ _You three_ were doing craft stuff?” 

Nikita sneered. “It’s a surprise. Manny and I will show you in a few weeks.”

The three of them agreed to have Manny and Nikita take the frog back to New York with them to figure out how to put it together. They’d bring it back the next time they were all home together - which would be around Halloween - and show everyone what it was then.

Well, if there was ever a time to apologize for his stupidity last night, it was now. Joey didn’t want to leave his friends feeling badly about him. Even if he’d see them again soon, he didn’t want his first few days back to be remembered as an absolute embarrassment.

“Uh, guys,” Joey started. “I’m really sorry about last night. I get woozy on cold medicine. I’m not really sure what I was expecting.”

Roi chuckled. “It’s okay. It was actually kinda funny.”

Rosanna nodded, but she suggested, “Maybe try to take it easy on the alcohol next time, though.”

“Don’t worry,” Joey assured her. “I’m not in a rush to get drunk after that.”

Colleen signaled him with a knowing smile. He didn’t know why, but seeing her smile at him like that made him feel a little better.

The warm, fuzzy feeling didn’t last too long, though. He remembered why they were all here: to say goodbye.

“I’m gonna miss you guys,” Joey told them. “It feels like I just got you all back after all this time.”

Matt put a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll see us again during fall break. And it’ll be just in time for Halloween.”

His smile returned. Halloween was easily one of his favorite holidays of the year ever since he was a kid. He was already looking forward to hanging out with them during spooky season. Plus, there was the Harfest celebration.

He hugged his Uber drivers first. “Thanks for bringing me out earlier. I’m really glad I got to see you guys again.”

“Anytime, honey,” Manny replied.

“Don’t set anything on fire without us,” Nikita added.

“I won’t.” Joey moved to hug Safiya next. “Bye, Saf… Sorry about your boots last night.”

Safiya shrugged. “Eh, they were getting worn out anyway.”

“I’ll get you some new ones for Christmas.”

“I look forward to it already.”

Next up was Rosanna. Her hug was extra tight, as her hugs usually were.

“I’ll miss you, Joey!” she said. “It was good to see you again!”

“I missed you, too,” Joey said with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, I’ll still be here for a while.”

Matt followed Rosanna’s hug. “We’re really glad you’re back, buddy.” he said to Joey.

“I’m glad to _be_ back.” When he hugged Roi, he whispered, “Please don’t show anyone my big speech.”

Roi laughed. “Don’t worry - as far as I’m concerned, that footage is buried in the center of the Earth.”

There were a few more minutes of hugs and goodbyes, until six of the friends left for their own cars. And then all that were left were Joey, Colleen, Teala and Jc. He missed the others already, but he was glad to have a few friends who lived home.

“And then, there were four,” Jc mused.

Colleen sighed. “Alright, I’m freezing. You guys ready to go?”

“Very much,” Teala replied.

Joey shrugged. “I don’t know, I kinda like the cold.”

“Why, though?”

“Why not?”

The four of them started their way toward The Grounds to get dry. It sure was getting cold early for the time of year. It was still just September, but every so often, Everlock had an early autumn. The town might have been in Southern California, but it was near the mountains, and it still knew which seasons were supposed to do what.

Joey didn’t quite know what else to talk about, so he decided on the arm sighting from the other day. He still wasn’t entirely sure how that could have happened. In _Everlock, California,_ no less.

“So… that arm, huh?” he said.

Colleen nodded. “I know, weird.”

“Kinda cool,” Jc said, “but, like, creepy?”

“I’d just call it ‘creepy,’” Teala told them. “I mean, it happened a few blocks away from our apartment.”

Joey perked up. “Teala, you live in Townie Centrie now?”

“Yeah, with Roi and Jc.”

Jc nodded. “We live in the building on Possum Street.”

“Since when?” Joey asked.

“About six months or so.”

Colleen snickered. “You really _have_ been gone a while.” 

“I guess I have,” Joey agreed.

Colleen’s tone became a bit more serious. “Hey, I really am sorry about what I said last night, Joey.”

“I was acting like an asshole. I probably deserved it.”

“Well, whether you deserved it or not, I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that.”

“You know, I don’t really remember a lot of it, so whatevs.”

“Hooray for alcohol!”

“New town moto, girl!”

Colleen laughed, and Joey couldn’t help but feel satisfied. It was probably the first time he’s seen her genuinely smile since he’s been back.

“So, you guys wanna do something tonight?” Joey asked the others. “I promise it’ll be an improvement from last night.”

Colleen snickered. “Yeah, okay.”

“What do you guys wanna do?” Teala asked.

He thought for a moment. “You guys wanna go to the mall?”

Colleen tilted her head. “Do people still go to malls?”

“I pride myself in not knowing what’s cool.”

“I’m down,” Jc decided.

“The one in Fort Lucenne?” Teala said. “Sure, I haven’t been there in ages.”

“You know what?” Colleen said. “Yeah, why not? Let’s go.”

The Fort Lucenne Mall was in a different town that was about half an hour away, but it was still considered a hot spot for people in Everlock. Joey wasn’t too sure about that anymore, especially considering people didn’t really go to malls that much nowadays. But he and his friends loved going there when they were kids. The mall itself was smaller than a traditional mall - only one story high - but there was still lots to do. Not to mention the atrium made it look bigger. There were a lot of bustling shops of all kinds, an arcade, and there was even a carousel. The memory of it all made Joey excited to go back.

“Alright then,” Joey said. “We’re goin’ malling!”

A few hours later, Colleen picked up Joey from his house, and Jc and Teala from work, and they were on their way to Fort Lucenne. Joey was sitting in the passenger seat, while Teala and Jc sat in the back.

He was glad he still had a chance to hang out with some of his friends, but something still nagged at the back of his mind. He loved Jc and Teala to pieces, but he wasn’t as close with them anymore as he’d like to be. The same went for Colleen; they might have patched up a little bit, but there was still a lot about Colleen’s life that he might not have known about.

He tried to keep himself optimistic. Maybe tonight would give him a better chance to talk to the three of them. Now that the rest of their friends were back at school, the four of them would have plenty of time to hang out.

“I’m so glad I didn’t puke in here,” Joey said.

“Same here,” Colleen agreed jokingly.

“Maybe I should just never drink again.”

Teala suggested, “Or… maybe take it easy next time?” She was sitting right behind him, and Joey could practically feel her concern burning into the back of his head.

“I don’t think I do moderation well.”

“I can tell,” Colleen said, rolling her eyes.

“I think the term is, ‘risk-taking behavior,’ ma’am.”

Joey could feel everyone’s weird looks from where he sat.

“Are you seeing someone about that, man?” Jc asked.

He shrugged. “I mean, hanging out with you guys is working pretty well tonight.”

Yeah. More weird looks. Well, these one’s weren’t so much weird. Maybe more concerned.

“Uh…” Joey muttered. “No pressure.”

Colleen sighed. “We should be getting paid by the hour.”

“I got some gum,” Joey offered.

Teala perked up. “Ooh! I want some!”

Joey fished some gum out of his pocket and tossed it over to Teala.

“Yo, Colleen,” Jc piped up. “Can you turn the music back up?”

“Gladly,” she replied.

It was a long drive, but they finally arrived outside the Fort Lucenne Mall. There sure was plenty of parking; they could only see a dozen or so other cars in the lot. Well, Joey figured it was getting kind of late. Maybe people weren’t really into malling this time of night.

When they got to the entrance, Joey ran inside yelling, _“Fort Luceeeeeeenne!!_ \- Oh, my God.” And he came to a stop when he saw the inside.

Okay. There was no way this was the Fort Lucenne mall that Joey and his friends used to go to. About half of the shops were closed, and the carousel was gone! Now it was just a building with a couple of shops in it. Some of the old stores weren’t even there anymore - they were just empty cubes with gates blocking them.

“What the hell happened to this place?!” Joey exclaimed.

“Um… the internet?” Colleen guessed.

“We had the damn internet when we used to come here! What happened to the bookstore?”

“Internet,” Teala answered as she walked up.

“What happened to the arcade?!”

“Internet,” Jc replied.

“What happened to-”

Colleen rolled her eyes. “Maybe we should just make a sign that says ‘internet’ and hold it up until you’re done asking.”

“And the carousel?” Joey asked. “Did the internet take _that_ , too?”

“Someone bought it, I guess.”

“Who buys a carousel?”

Colleen shrugged. “No one who comes here, apparently.”

“Come on, guys,” Jc said. “Let’s see what the internet hasn’t stolen from this mortal coil.”

The four of them wandered through the mall for a bit to see if there was still anywhere to shop. They found a few clothing stores, a Claire’s that looked horribly neglected, and a dollar store.

“They got rid of the arcade,” Joey pointed out, “but left the dollar store?”

Jc nodded. “I think that’s one of the few things the internet can’t compete with.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

Damn, that was sad.

Joey couldn’t help but feel a little disheartened. Not only was the biggest grocery store in Everlock shut down, but a mall in a different town was, too. Why was everything around him suddenly being stripped away like this?

His mood took a turn when he saw one of the stores that were still open. He stopped in his tracks as his eyes popped at the sight of one of the edgiest stores this side of the Mississippi: URevoluvion.

“Oh, my God,” Joey said. “The URev is still here!”

“Oh, hell yeah!” Jc cheered. “Dude, I can smell the teen angst from here.”

URevolution was basically Hot Topic with less anime stuff. It was kind of a hot spot for the angsty youth of Everlock. And by the grace of God, it was still up and running.

Teala put her hands on her hips. “Okay. We are _definitely_ doing this.” 

“I’m not going in there, girl,” Colleen argued.

“Yes, you are!” Teala grabbed Colleen’s hand before she could protest again, and tugged her inside.

The inside of the URevolution was absolute Edgy-Teen Heaven. The walls were covered in a black-to-purple pallet, lit by some blue overhead lights. Almost all of the clothes in the store were in some sort of goth and graphic style. The outfits spanned from band T-shirts, to slashed jeans, to spiky chokers and bracelets. A song by one of Joey’s old favorite emo/rock bands, WitchDagger, was playing overhead. They might have been a little old, but their songs were still pretty damn good.

“Ho. Lee. Crap,” Joey gasped as he glanced around. He grinned satisfactorily. “I’m fourteen again.”

Jc chuckled. “How come Saf didn’t work _here_ in high school?”

The cashier was a girl with a half shaved head and a studded nose ring. 

“Welcome,” she said in the most unenthusiastic, monotone voice Joey had ever heard. “Just so you all know, we have twenty percent off select T-shirts.”

“Oooh, T-shirts!” Joey chirped.

They wandered around the shop for a bit. None of them really expected to buy anything at first, but they did find some stuff that reminded them why they were glad they weren’t in middle school anymore. Although, they had seen some WitchDagger blacklight posters. 

Joey sighed. “There’s nothing cool here - I mean, other than the WatchDagger stuff. There’s just stuff that’s cool with, like, thirteen-year-olds.”

Colleen sneered. “You should go hang out with the other thirteen-year-olds.”

“Stop.”

“Why? You have so much in common!”

Joey shoved her shoulder. “Girl, I will steal your car and leave you here!”

“Like you even know how to drive stick!”

She was smiling again, and it made Joey feel so much lighter.

They eventually each found something to buy, paid for their stuff, and left. As they walked out of the store, Joey admired the little crystal necklace he got. It was a tiny clear quartz attached to the chain by a gold wire. Clear quartzes were supposed to be used for healing. If Joey was being honest, he could use some of that right about now.

“What did you guys get?” Joey wanted to know.

“This necklace here,” Teala answered, holding up a necklace with a Sagittarius symbol etched into a small metal pendant.

“Cute!” Colleen commented. “I got this little dude.” She lifted up her hand to reveal a little ring. It was a tiny purple gem being clutched by a pair of silver hands. “What about you, Jc?”

He took a belt buckle out of his pocket. “I saw a belt buckle in the shape of a pineapple, and it was calling to me.”

Joey leaned over to get a look. “I didn’t know people still wore those.”

“There’s this guy named Pancho who comes to The Grounds pretty often. He has some pretty dope belt buckles.”

“Aww, Pancho!” Teala gushed. “I love him!”

Jc grinned. “Everybody loves Pancho.”

At that moment, they came upon the fountain in the middle of the mall. It was a big, round thing made out of marvel and some sort of white stone. In the center was a giant fish head that faced upward to the ceiling. No water sprayed out of its mouth; instead, a series of smaller fountains shot a little bit of water around it.

“Oh, wow,” Joey said. “I totally forgot about the giant fish head.”

Jc grinned. “Aw, yeah. I used to love this thing.”

“Really?” Teala asked. “I was terrified of it when I was a kid.”

Colleen looked it over. “Do you guys remember that Summer Daze thing they used to do?” 

“That was the reason it freaked me out.”

A long time ago, the mall had an event during the first week of June called, “Summer Daze.” There would be all sorts of kiosks selling ice cream, lemonade and snow cones. A bunch of summery ornaments like flamingos with little hats and suns wearing sunglasses would line up the walkways. In Joey’s opinion, the best part of that event was when the fish head would move around and spray people with water. Although, every year, at least one person would get knocked down and make a fuss. He also had a very vivid memory of Teala crying when she got sprayed when they were nine.

“I remember thinking that was hilarious when I was a kid,” Colleen said.

“Same here,” Jc said. “I mean, I felt bad for laughing, but I still thought it was funny.”

“I still have no idea how they did that,” Joey admitted. “I always just assumed it was some guy with a squirt gun or something.”

Teala offered, “I think they had a control panel somewhere. I was never sure where it was, though.” 

Colleen pointed up to the ceiling. “You guys know that walkway up there? Past the upper food court in the atrium?”

Joey looked where she was pointing, and saw they were right under the atrium. Up on the ceiling was a skylight that pointed up, giving them a view of the night sky. The clouds and the rain seemed to have finally cleared up, revealing the stars. In front of the window was some kind of art display with a bunch of transparent, pinkish-orange glass structures. They looked like a bunch of flat sheets of glass had been attached to make whatever shapes those were.

“Yeah?” Jc said.

“When I was a kid, I thought that was where God lived,” she explained. “Like, I remember staring up there and eating a burger, trying to see if I could find God peaking over or something.”

“You guys wanna head up and get a look at the art up there?” Joey asked.”

“Nah,” Jc replied with a shrug. “Kinda tired from work.”

“Same here,” Colleen added. “Maybe a little later.”

All of a sudden, Joey’s stomach started growling. It was like it was yelling at him, _“Give me food, you dumb bitch! All you had to eat was French toast and that was ten hours ago!!!”_

Colleen snickered. “Who’s hungry?”

“Me…” Joey raised his hand slowly.

Teala chuckled. “You guys up for some mall food?”

“Always, man,” Jc repled.

Joey sighed. “Ah, how I‘ve missed mall food…”

They each got their own stuff from different restaurants and sat down at a table near the fountain. Ah, nothing like a giant fish head watching you eat garbage mall food to help you settle down after a long day of stealing an animatronic frog.

While they were eating, Joey noticed how quiet Jc and Colleen were suddenly being. He wasn’t sure why - maybe they were tired from work or walking around the mall?

“How was work today, guys?” Joey asked. “Manny and Nikita and I passed you all earlier today.”

Colleen sighed. “Lugging keyboards out of a truck, man. Good workout for your arms, not so much your knees.”

“The air conditioner broke this afternoon,” Jc said. “We gotta get that fixed by tomorrow.”

Joey smiled at them. “It’s so weird seeing all of you wth jobs that you, like, go to.”

Colleen shrugged. “That’s adulting for ya: you need a job.”

Teala nodded. “Roi’s been working a paid internship at a radio station up in North Carolina, too.”

“We’ve been working on the plan,” Jc said. “Teala, Roi and me.”

“What plan is that?”

Teala beamed. “Bright Harbor, baby!”

Joey was taken aback by that. “Bright Harbor?”

“Yep! The three of us are gonna move there in the spring!”

“Hopefully,” Jc added. “That’s why we’ve been working basically seven days a week.”

Bright Harbor was miles away from Everlock - all the way by the ocean. It wasn't too far away from San Francisco as a matter of fact. They were really moving all the way out there?

“How long have you guys been planning that?” Joey wanted to know.

Jc thought before he answered. “A year or so now 

“It's so cool there man!” Jc said. “There’s a bunch of old record stores and weird bars…”

Teala nodded. “And everyone’s so cool, and like, free!”

“That’s where I got my tattoo,” Jc said.

Joey gasped. “You have a tattoo?!”

“Yeah, man. Check it out.”

Jc’s been wearing long sleeves ever since Joey first saw him again the other day, so Joey never noticed. He pulled his shirt sleeve all the way back to reveal a beautiful lineart tattoo sleeve on his upper arm. It depicted a sunset behind a group of clouds over the ocean. 

“Woah,” Joey gasped. “Jc, you have a tattoo. Both of you and Roi are moving to Bright Harbor. And Colleen is basically running a store now.”

Colleen shrugged. “It’s not always easy. We’ve basically been doing everything all by ourselves for the past bunch of months. It gets kind of overwhelming trying to keep up with everything. Now I’m just tired all the time.”

Jc nodded and pulled his sleeve back over his arm. “The Grounds is nice, but we might need more money if we’re gonna move next year. I've been trying to find a second job to earn some extra money, but I still haven’t heard back from anyone.”

Their moods suddenly fell a little more. Seeing them sad made Joey sad, too. He thought they were having fun a few minutes ago. He couldn’t help but wonder if the two of them had felt like that the entire time. He really wished there was something he could do for them.

“You guys wanna walk around the mall some more?” Joey asked.

Jc shook his head. “Nah, I’m tired.”

“Same,” Colleen agreed. “And sad now.”

“We can check out the weird art upstairs,” Joey offered. “I wanna touch it!”

Colleen made a face. “Joey, please don’t touch the art.”

“I’ll come with you,” Teala offered. “I wanna see what’s up with all that glass.”

“Sounds good,” Joey decided. “Call us if you guys want us to come back,” he said to Colleen and Jc.

“Thanks, guys,” Jc said.

“Have fun,” Colleen added.

Joey and Teala stood up to head to the upper walkway while Colleen and Jc stayed behind and started talking.

“I honestly thought this place would be more…” Teala trailed off.

“More what?”

“I don’t know. Just… _more._ It’s weird seeing this place so empty.”

“I know. It’s hardly even a mall anymore - it’s just a big hallway with crap in it.”

“And an ocean of an empty parking lot,” Teala added with a giggle.

Joey decided to ask her about the others. “Hey… Do Jc and Colleen seem, like, down to you?”

She sighed. “Work’s been stressing both of them out. Colleen and her brothers and sister are trying to keep their parents shop up and running, but it’s hard for them to do it alone. Jc’s been out looking for a second job for almost two months only to be tossed aside in favor of people who were older than him.”

Joey knew his friends were working hard, but he didn’t really know how much of a toll it really took on them. He wished he’d thought to ask them more questions the night he first saw them again.

“Those poor guys...” Joey said sadly. “I had no idea…”

“It’s okay. You were gone for a long while; you couldn’t have known. I think Jc’s been worried about his parents too. I can tell he still thinks they’re disappointed in him.”

“Were your parents doing that, too?”

She nodded sadly. “They’ve chilled out over the past year, but… I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like parents don’t know when to admit they were maybe in the wrong when they argue with their kids…”

It had been a bit of a surprise when Teala and Jc decided not to go to school. After all, Jc was one of the smartest people Joey’s ever met, and Teala was an honor’s student throughout high school. In the end, they’d both just decided college wasn’t the best thing for them. They’d both had fights with their families over it, and Joey could tell it took a toll on them.

“I think my sister’s still a little upset that I dropped out, too,” Joey said.

“What happened anyway?” She looked at him expectantly.

“Uh…” He suddenly got a frog in his throat. “Forget it. I kinda don’t wanna talk about it. Sorry…”

“It’s okay. You can tell me when you’re ready.”

Joey wasn’t sure if he would be ready any time soon. If he was being honest, there were a lot of things he was still trying to piece together. Either way, he appreciated Teala for being so understanding. He wished he knew more people like that. He wished he, or Colleen, or anyone was more like that.

Teala drooped as they started climbing the stairs to the exhibit. “You wanna know what sucks the most about all of this?” she asked.

“What is it?”

“When everyone first graduated and left for school, all I could think was, ‘God works in the weirdest ways to get people to where they’re meant to be.’”

“Do you still believe in God?”

She nodded. “I don’t really go to church anymore, but yeah. I don’t really talk about it with Jc and Colleen, though. Jc wasn’t really raised religious, and I think Colleen stopped believing in God after she lost her parents. Roi believes in God, but he’s not always here.”

Joey took in everything she was saying. He wasn’t super religious himself, but he never really had a problem with his friends or family believing in stuff like that. As long as someone didn’t try to force their beliefs down his throat, he was fine with it. Besides, there wasn’t any proof that there was or wasn’t a God. The idea of Heaven seemed really nice, though.

Teala continued. “Sometimes it’s just nice believing there might be someone at the controls, you know? When we were all younger, not knowing how something worked seemed like magic. Now not knowing means there’s something wrong, and we might not be able to fix it. And everyone’s tired and constantly worried about work or school or life in general.”

“I wish there was something we could do for them. I hate seeing them that sad…”

“I know. Me, too.”

Joey might have been dealing with his own problems, but he still cared about what his friends were going through. Hell, everyone who’d gone back to school earlier that day might have been struggling with things Joey hadn’t even known about. He really wished there was something he could at least do for Colleen and Jc, but what?

When they reached the top of the stairs, they were standing on a small platform with a few more tables as part of the food court. Hanging above them by strong looking wires were a series of strange 3D shapes. A closer look at them gave the two of them the impression that they were made of thick plastic instead of glass. A little 

_Space VI: The Rocks Cosmic; An installation by Robert Gills. Sponsored by Ham Panther._

“I will never understand modern art,” Joey proclaimed.

Teala shrugged. “You could always pretend you know what you’re looking at.”

They kept inspecting the exhibit, trying to make it look like they knew what they were doing. Oh, yeah. They were totally appreciating the everliving _shit_ out of those whatever-they-were!

Teala tapped his shoulder after a moment. “Hey, you see that platform up there?”

Joey turned to see what she was talking about. Above the exhibit was some kind of catwalk-looking thing with a panel of some kind. Joey suddenly got a bit curious about it. And it almost looked like you could get up there from hopping around the exhibit...

“What do you think that thing’s for?” Teala wondered aloud.

Joey got an idea, and a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Only one way to find out…”

“Huh?”

“Let’s use these things to get up there!”

Her eyes boggled. “Dude, what?!” she hissed. “Someone might see us!”

“Who? There’s barely anyone around…”

He gestured around the mall to prove his point. Teala looked around, as if she were trying to confirm that. Joey was right, though. They hadn’t seen that many people in the mall since they got here.

“Hmm… I guess you’re right,” Teala pondered. She sounded less nervous. “You want me to go first?”

“You sure?”

“I’m smaller than you, and we don't know how well these will hold both of us.”

Before Joey could say anything more, Teala climbed up onto one of the tables. She got a little speedy start, and threw herself onto one of the plastic pieces. It shook up and down a little when she landed, but she hadn’t lost her balance. Within seconds, she straightened up like she wasn’t standing several feet above the ground with nothing to catch her.

She turned around and beamed at him. _“Ta-da!”_

“Come on, super spy!” Joey chortled.

“I was on track and field for a reason.” She hopped up to the next piece to give Joey some room. “Hurry before someone catches us up here!”

Joey repeated Teala’s process of climbing onto a table and backing up. It suddenly occurred to him how dangerous this would be. He prefered if he and Teala left in Colleen’s car with their bones fully intact instead of an ambulance. But if Teala could do it…

He swallowed his fear, too off running and lunged over to the first piece. For a split second, he felt like he would miss the landing, fall down to the floor and turn into a pancake. But he landed on his feet and caught himself. He straightened up, and found that the wires were stronger than they looked.

“Hey,” he whispered. “Look at ths! We’re not dead!”

“Yeah, dude!” she said excitedly. “Okay, let’s get going!”

They continued to leap along, landing on each of the pieces one at a time. Joey managed to keep his balance, but he came close to slipping over a couple of times. Teala, however, was almost treating it like it was some sort of playground. She never faltered once, and she was able to effortlessly land on each of the surfaces, barely disturbing them.

Joey chuckled at the sight of his friend. “How are you a squirrel when it comes to climbing, but you never learned how to swim?”

“Water cannot be trusted,” was her answer to that question.

They spent a few more minutes hopping from piece to piece until they arrived at the platform. Joey felt a lot safer now that they were on relatively solid flooring.

“Whew... “ he sighed. “Thank God, that's over.” He tried not to think about how they might have to repeat the process on the way down.

“Woah…” Teala marveled. “Joey, look - you can see the whole mall from up here!”

He peaked over the platform's railing, and was awestruck at the view. The atrium was easily at least forty feet in the air, and they were surrounded by the glass of the skylight and the stars in the night. They were looking down at all the shops, the empty husks that used to be shops, and everyone who was still in the mall. They even saw Colleen and Jc back at their table near the fountain. It made Joey wonder if this was what birds felt like.

Joey realized they were next to the panel they saw from a distance, and the two of them moved to get a closer look. The controls turned out to look something like an arcade game. It had a joystick, a button that said, “Charge,” and another one that read, “Splash.”

Holy crap. Was this the thing that controlled the fish fountain?

“Wait…” Teala whispered. “Is this..?”

There was a little red button on the top right corner, and when he pushed it, the rest of the buttons lit up. They both grinned at each other.

 _“Oh, yeah…”_ Joey said.

 _“Oooh yeeeaaah!”_ _  
_

_“Oooooooohhh yeeeeaaaaahhh!”_

This was going to be delicious…

Teala grabbed the joystick and turned it around. As Joey was hoping, the fish head started moving along with it. Their friends at the table noticed it after a second, and Joey could hear what they were saying.

“Woah, hey,” Jc said.

“What the?” Colleen gasped.

Teala glanced at him. “You wanna try it first?”

She moved to let Joey take hold of the joystick, and he started aiming it at a dude walking past. He pressed the “Charge” button, thinking it meant “charge up the water,” and hit the “Splash” button. With that, a stream of water blasted out at the dude, hitting him in the back. The guy screamed a high-pitched scream and started running.

“Joey! Teala!” Jc called out. “Is that you?!”

Joey stepped aside. “Your turn, Teala!”

She leaned over and took hold of the joystick until it was pointing at some poor sap in a dress shirt. The blast ended up splashing him on the top of his head.

“What…” Colleen said before she started giggling.

“Holy crap, dude,” Jc said, but he was smiling.

 _Yes, it’s working!_ Joey thought. _They're smiling!_

Joey took over, and moved the fish around until it was pointing at some blonde lady with a bad haircut. He recognized her as a friend of Mayor Wilson (Ugh, that still sounded wrong). He didn't hesitate before pointing the fish at her and firing right at her hair. The lady made a face that said, “Well, I’d never-!”

Their friends were laughing louder this time. Colleen was wiping a tear from her eye and Jc almost fell out of his chair.

Joey stepped aside and let Teala take over. She moved the mighty fish head until it was pointing at a group of boys about their age.

Teala made a face. “That’s gotta be the little shits we saw at the shop today.”

“What did they do?”

“They were trying to hit on me until Jc and the manager told them off, and they called me a not-nice word when I went to the break room.”

Oh. Oh, _hell_ no.

 _“Sick ‘em,”_ Joey encouraged her.

Teala sneered, and moved the fish towards the group of eff-boys. She didn’t hesitate to open fire on the guy walking in the middle of their group square in the face. He fell over, and the guys ran away, leaving their leader to struggle up and run away screaming.

Jc and Colleen were full out laughing their asses off now, and so was Teala. It made Joey feel so much better. He felt so accomplished if he did something to make his friends smile. And after hearing about what they were feeling before, it made it all the more satisfying.

The table duo was so distracted that they didn’t expect what happened next. Joey maneuvered the fish in the direction of their table and fired. The water landed smack dab in the middle of their table, causing water to splash all over the both of them. They shrieked and jerked away, but they didn’t stop laughing.

He turned on the microphone and heard a bit of feedback. He screamed into it, _“COLLEEN BALLINGER AND JC CAYLEN!!!”_

“Don’t give them their names, dude!” Teala hissed between guffaws.

“Uh… Colleen Miller and Jc Jones!”

Colleen tried to catch her breath. “Is that you, God?”

“Yes! It is I, God Stevenson!”

“I didn’t know God had a last name!” Jc called out.

“ _SILENCE MORTAL!_ Through my fish beast, my angel sidekick and I have laid waste to your kind!”

Teala took the opportunity to lean really close to the mic and yell, _“Bitch, I’m nobody’s sidekick!”_

Joey laughed. “My bad, sorry, angel!”

Colleen and Jc were doubled over now, their faces on the surface of the table.

He yelled into the mic, “I decree that you and your good and noble and incredibly attractive companions shall get ice cream on the way home!”

“Okay, okay!” Colleen chortled. “We really gotta go before someone calls the cops!”

 _“Bah!”_ Joey scoffed. “The cops shall be confused and beat each other up and stuff! For I am God, and I hate the cops!” 

“Alright,” Jc yelled. “Get down here, you two!”

“Have a good one, mortals!” Teala told them.

They shut the panel off and turned to hop back down the exhibit. Thankfully, there were even _less_ people to see them this time around.

“Farewell, dear fish head,” Joey said to the panel.

“I’m not gonna lie,” Teala told him. “That was pretty magical.”

By the time Teala and Joey joined back up with their friends, they’d finally settled down. Jc and Colleen were still a bit damp from the fish water, but they both still had smiles on their faces. Even Teala seemed in a much better mood. It made Joey happy to see his friends smiling like this.

“Well done, guys,” Jc said. “You’ve thoroughly made this place a thousand times better.”

“And assaulted us with mall water,” Colleen commented, wringing out her hair.

“I assure you both,” Teala said, “We have no idea who was responsible for that.”

“Yes,” Joey added. “But we shall not rest until we find out who was responsible!”

Colleen snorted. “This is a trauma we shall bear forever…”

“You guys ready to go home?” Jc asked them.

Teala replied, “Yeah. Someone might call the cops if we’re not careful.”

Joey nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”

They made their way back out to the parking lot, but Joey couldn’t help but feel a little bad all over again. This trip had been fun, and he was glad he helped his friends feel better. That wasn’t why he was sad. It was more the status the Fort Lucenne mall was in. It wasn’t really a great place anymore; it was just another sad memory that was slowly disappearing.

Joey sighed. “This place used to be something.”

“I mean,” Colleen said, “it’s still _something._ ”

“Not really; it’s just a big, mostly-empty thing in a big, mostly-empty parking lot.”

Jc shrugged. “You work with what you have, I guess.”

“How about we never come back here,” Teala suggested.

“Agreed,” Joey said.

“You don’t have to convince me,” Colleen said.

“Same here,” Jc added.

“Well,” Joey said, “Fort Lucenne used to be something. Now Fort Lucenne’s over.”

Colleen sighed sadly. “We still have memories of this place, at least.”

“Let it die in peace, buddy,” Jc said, placing a hand on Joey’s shoulder.

Joey nodded. “Let. It. Die.”

“So, like…” Teala mused. “We’re still getting ice cream, right?”

When Joey arrived home later that night, he went into the living room to find his Dad watching TV.

“Sup, Dad?”

Dad looked up from the TV. “Why, if it isn’t the mayor of Everlock himself.”

“You heard about that?”

“One of the neighbors told me they heard you talking with Mayor Wilson yesterday.”

“Oh… how much did they hear?”

Dad shrugged. “Just that part, I think. Why?”

“No reason…”

Joey didn’t want to worry his Dad about the things people have been saying about the… incident. He probably had other things to worry about anyway.

Thankfully, Dad seemed to be okay with that. “Speaking of which, Nicole told me you had a wild time last night.”

Joey crossed his arms. “I didn’t drink!”

“At least let me accuse you first.”

“Oh… right.”

“You wanna know the best cure for a hangover? Not drinking the night before.”

“ _Woooow._ Hold on, I gotta write that down.” Joey made a little writing motion with his hand.

Dad chuckled. “So, what did you do today?”

“Hung out with my friends some. Colleen, Teala, Jc and I just got back from the mall.”

“How are your friends doing?”

Joey nodded. “Yeah. I don’t really know. They’re all, like, older now. Some of them are more sad.”

“Well, growing up does that sometimes. Life doesn’t always go the way you think it will. You can really just make the best with what you have, even if it’s not a lot.”

“Yeah…” 

Dad seemed to notice how sad Joey was getting. “Why don’t you watch some TV with me?” he offered.

Joey blinked. Well, he had agreed to watch TV with Dad at some point after he got home. Even if the stuff he watched was totally dumb, he was never really one to break a promise.

“Might as well,” Joey decided.

He patted the couch. “Hop on. I’m watching Garbo and Maloy.”

“Quality programming right there. That was sarcasm, in case you couldn’t tell.”

“Oh, I could. I could.”

He took a seat next to his Dad as the episode started. The talk show was pretty much just these two guys in corny looking suits and oddly placed Jersey/Brooklyn-sounding accents talking about anything to fill in half an hour of showtime. The episode went something like this:

 _“You superstitious, Malloy?”_ Garbo asked his co-host.

_“Not anymore.”_

_“What happened?”_

_“I’ve broken every mirror I’ve ever owned! Now I’m lucky enough to not have to look at that ugly mug anymore!”_

_“Well, what about the rest of us?”_

_“Wha-?! That’s a whoppah!”_

And then the canned laughter went off.

Joey chuckled. “This is really stupid.”

“Why do you think I watch it?” Dad asked him with a grin.

When the show was over, Joey went to bed, satisfied with his day. It had definitely been an improvement since he’d been home. Maybe things would be okay after all…

He fell asleep almost immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Another long chapter, I'll do my best to shorten them a little in the future.  
> But hey, at least everything's all good in Everlock, right?
> 
> Next time: Joey has yet another strange dream...


	10. Astral Alley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song used in this chapter:
> 
> "Astral Alley" from the Night in the Woods soundtrack - Starts at _"Joey stood for a moment and listened."_
> 
> I recommend listening to this build-up version while you read :)  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZlHxcklOc4

_ His dream later that night was somewhat similar to the one he’d had the night before. He was standing by himself in the middle of a wooded glen, surrounded by vivid colors that were supposed to represent the night. Similarly to that day, it was raining. However, this rain was more intense. Thunder would occasionally sound off in the distance, and the rain was throwing itself down and splashing where it landed. The odd thing was that the sky was clear, and Joey could see every single star. He couldn’t even feel the rain hitting him. It was as though the rain was passing right through his body. _

_ “Where… where is this place..?” Joey wondered aloud. _

_ He glanced around, trying to figure out where this world was. He had a feeling it was the same land where his previous dream came from. But he had no idea where he was, or why he was here. _

_ He decided that the only way to get answers was to start walking. He wasn’t sure where to, so he picked a random direction and trudged onward. _

_A nearby pillar with a single window suddenly lit up with a soft blue light. Joey got closer, and he could see someone sitting inside, looking back down at him. Upon closer examination, Joey found that it was actually a humanoid bird with a short beak. He looked like something out of a fairy tale, and he could have been walking down the street in the 1920s. The_ _bird picked up a violin and started playing a hauntingly melodious tune._

_ Joey stood for a moment and listened. He’d never heard the song before, but it sounded like he should have known it. The music had a hypnotic beauty to it, and he wanted to stand there all night and listen to it, as if it were the only sound that mattered. _

_ But something inside him told him to keep walking, so he did. He soon cut out of the trees and arrived in a town, although it wasn’t the same one from the previous night. It shared a few similar elements: buildings made of bricks and stark orange and yellow lights from the windows cutting through the darkness. But the streetlights were replaced with some sort of lanterns hanging off of poles, swinging back and forth from an unfeelable breeze. None of them were lit up from what he could see. So he approached one of the lanterns, and as he stepped underneath it, it burst to life, creating a similar bright hue as the windows. _

_ He was able to climb up a steep pathway made by one of the brick buildings when he saw a similar pillar to the violin player. A bear dressed in a grey and black pinstripe suit sat inside, peering down at Joey, and started playing a tuba. It seemed to be in tune with the violinist, and the two instruments engaged in an ensemble. _

_ Something inside him told him that there were more. There was a whole band hiding somewhere in this town, and Joey felt an urge to locate all of them and hear their music. _

_ He then remembered that he was able to leap up high into the air in his previous dream. He decided to give it a try, and sprung upwards, landing on one of the powerlines. _

_ For a split second, he almost lost his balance. But he was able to regain his composure and slowly took a step forward. When he didn’t fall on his face and die, he took another step, then another. When he gained a bit of confidence, he hopped up and down, landing back on the line. He wondered if this was what Teala felt like when she was climbing along the art exhibit - swift and nimble, squirreling along almost effortlessly. _

_ He looked into the sky to see an eclipsed moon. It wasn't like any regular lunar eclipse. This eclipse covered the moon in total blackness, with bits of lights trying to peak out. The only light shining down from the sky was the stars. _

_ When he arrived on top of another building, he came across a third pillar which contained another bird. This bird had a long beak, and was playing the saxophone in tune with the other two instruments. It added a bit of jazzy flare to the lonely tune. _

_ He hopped back onto the wires and crossed to another building. He got another look at the sky to see something he hadn’t noticed a moment ago. He saw a series of galaxies and constellations that he couldn’t name. The stars seemed to be twinkling along to the rhythm of the music, creating a percussion. _

_ Finally, he leaped off of the wires and onto another building. There, he found an accordion-playing crocodile resting inside of the final pillar. The crocodile gazed down at him as he played, as though Joey were a long lost friend. _

_ He explored the town a bit longer, listening to the ensemble as he walked. Something about the group seemed oddly familiar to Joey, although he couldn’t remember where he’d heard of them. He’d certainly never heard their music for himself, but it seemed as though the four of them were playing this song just for him. As though they could sense the anguish and fear that Joey had felt in his previous dream, and they were playing this song to help him feel less alone. _

_ When he arrived back at the glen where he’d started, a loud GONG! caused the band to stop playing. Joey’s vision grew blurry, making it difficult to see. Everything went quiet for a moment, and then Joey heard a rumbling sound as everything around him began to shake. In the distance, he saw a gargantuan shadow rising up through the trees. He squinted his eyes to try and get a better look, and saw that it was a bear. _

_ The bear opened Its eyes, and they were piercingly bright, slicing through the darkness and Joey’s blurred vision. It opened Its mouth and let out a deafening cry that Joey would never expect to come from any normal bear. _ _  
_

_ He covered his ears and fell to his knees, trying to block out the noise. Before long, he realized his body was being broken down. And so were the woods around him. Everything was dissolving and transforming like shards of broken glass, and floating into the air in tiny shapes… _

_ Shapes… _

_ He was just shapes… _ _  
_

_ Everything else was shapes, too... _

_ Everything around him… _

_ Shapes… all shapes… _

_ ONLY SHAPES- _

_. _

_.. _

_ … _

_ And everything went white. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Artist rambling below-
> 
> The dream sequences are without a doubt where the game won me over. I absolutely adore the art and the color schemes the designers used. The visuals leave me mesmerized the every time. _AND THE MUSIC!!!!_ The way the game had the instruments pick up one by one instead of having them all start at the same time was just _*chef's kiss*_  
>  I really recommend playing the game just so you can see what these scenes are like!!
> 
> Okay artist rambling over, carry on!
> 
> I hope you guys liked this one!! Hope you're all having a good day :)
> 
> Next time: Joey looks at the stars with a few of his old teachers


	11. Weird Autumn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick tw- there's a couple of short moments of existentialism in this chapter

That night wouldn’t be the last time Joey would have that dream. Each night onward, it would come back. And each morning after, he’d wake up with a slight headache. It usually wouldn’t last very long - only until after he got out of the shower. But he’d always keep the dream in mind, wondering what it was supposed to mean.

Other than the strange dreams, though, his life was pretty normal. He’d hang out with Teala and Jc at The Grounds, and he’d visit Colleen at Strings n’ Things. The three of them soon invited Joey to be part of a video chat group with the rest of their friends, where they’d all talk to each other every Friday. And at the end of every day, when Joey settled down, he’d watch TV with his Dad and sister.

On the first Saturday of October, Joey came home at about four in the afternoon to find Nicole and Dad talking at the table. At some point, Dad told them about an apparent sinkhole that opened up in their neighborhood.

“Um,  _ pardon?! _ ” Joey said. Surely he heard something different.

“Yeah!” Dad replied. “Apparently one just opened up two streets over last night! Thankfully, all it took with it was a stop sign.”

“How'd  _ that  _ happen?”   


“I guess the ground got all swampy from the rain a while back,” Nicole figured. “That happens if there are mines nearby.”   


That was true. The old mines might have been shut down for years, but they were still there. A couple of the tunnels ran through some of the neighborhoods in town, and they used to result in sinkholes. They hadn’t happened in a really long time - not since Joey was sixteen. That was the year a sinkhole swallowed a bunch of cars in the Food Donkey parking lot.

“I didn't know we were still getting those,” Joey said.

“They don’t really go away, I don’t think,” Nicole told him. “We probably just got lucky the past few years.”   


“Anyway,” Dad said, “I don’t want you two getting too close to those things.”

“I promise I won't,” Joey assured him. “I’ve  _ seen  _ sinkholes.”

“No interest at all?” Nicole asked him.   


“Well… maybe if one swallows a building or something.”

“We’ll go see that together if that happens.”

“Deal!”

Dad gave them a look. “What did I just tell you two?”

Joey and Nicole both laughed.

Dad checked his phone and said, “Alright, I gotta get going. Evening shift at the Ham Panther deli tonight.”   


“Have fun with the meats, Dad!” Nicole told him.

“Tell your meatfriends all about us!” Joey added.

“Oh,  _ trust  _ me.” Dad joked on his way out. “All the steaks and chickens know  _ plenty  _ about my horrible kids.” He left the kitchen and they heard the door shut.

Joey could have gotten used to stuff like this being the norm for him. It would be perfect if he could stop having that dream every night. Not only that - he was curious about the constellations he’d been seeing. There were two of them that rotated each night, and he didn’t recognize either of them. He figured it would give him some piece of mind if he could figure out what constellations he was seeing.

“Hey, Nicole, you don’t know anything about stars, do you?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I would have thought that was more  _ your  _ field of expertise. Why?”

“I’ve been having this wild recurring dream for the past few weeks. I’m walking through this town looking for a band, and it was raining but the sky was clear? And I see these galaxies and constellations I’ve never seen before. And at the end of my dream, there’s this giant shadow bear that screamed until everything broke apart.”

“Sounds like a Lovecraft story.”   


“Hm… well, when you put it that way…” He shuddered. “Actually, never mind. I don’t think I wanna think about that.”   


He very quickly decided that thought was too scary. Out of all the scary stories he grew up with, those ones freaked Joey out the most. As much as he liked being scared, he could only go so far until he wanted to curl up into a ball and die. The idea that nothing humanity did would ever matter, and that the entire universe was totally at the mercy of an unfeeling cosmos, and that there might be a whole race of monsters somewhere at the edge of the universe was just…  _ ugh..! _

If it turned out he was having some sort of Lovecraftian vision of unfathomable horror, he was going to break something. 

“Well,” Nicole said, “I unfortunately don’t know much about dream interpretation. But as for the stars, I think a couple of your high school teachers live a few blocks from here, right?”

“Yeah, Mortimer and Calliope. My old history and astronomy teachers.”   


“Well, that’s perfect! Maybe you could go ask them about it.”

Well, Calliope  _ had _ offered to have him come look at the stars before. Out of every teacher Joey’s ever had, the two of them were probably the only ones he wouldn’t mind seeing. If anyone could help him figure his dream constellations out, maybe they could.

“Normally, I’d avoid my teachers like the plague,” Joey stated, “but that actually sounds like a good idea.”

“Never hurts to reach out to your old teachers for help. They like hearing from their students.”

It was a short walk to Calliope and Mortimer's house, but Joey wished it would last longer. Not because he didn't want to see them, but because the neighborhood looked so nice.

Autumn was in the air, and he was loving it. Everlock was less than a week into October, but folks already had their porches decorated with pumpkins, gravestones and fake spiderwebs. Against the deep blue sky were shades of warm reds, vibrant oranges, beaming yellows, and earthy browns. Several of those colors were falling down and littering the ground. The chill in the air was the best kind - the kind that said:  _ “I hereby decree that it is appropriate to wear sweaters and boots!” _

Joey breathed in the musky smell of the leaves. “God, I love Fall.”

He rounded the corner to find two of the best teachers in the entire world just casually chilling on the roof of their house. They stood close together, and he got the sense it was colder up there than it was on the ground. That was when he noticed they had a telescope set up, and they were taking turns looking through it. That must have been the one Mortimer got a while back.

Joey waved to them when he got within earshot. “Hello, up there!”

They turned to Joey and smiled at him.

“Hello, down there!” Calliope called back.

Mortimer waved at him. “Hey, Joey! How’s the world on the ground?!”

“Dirty and cold! How’s the roof?!”

Calliope chuckled. “Windy and also cold!”

“I wanted to know if your offer to look at the stars still stands?!”

Mortimer gestured for him to climb the ladder. “Sure thing! Come on up!”

Joey strolled up to the base of the ladder, gripped the sides and started his way up. He wasn’t afraid of heights at all - especially considering he followed Teala onto that exhibit at the mall. If anything, he was more afraid of  _ falling  _ from heights. And he didn't trust that something as thin as a metal rung would hold him up. That being said, he was extremely mindful of where he was placing his feet on the way up.

When he finally set foot on the roof, he let out a sigh of relief. The surface was flat enough for the three of them to walk safely without falling over. The first thing he noticed was that Calliope was right - it  _ was  _ windy and cold up there. He wished he’d thought to wear a hat that day to save his hair.

“I’m glad you’ve finally accepted my invitation, Joey,” Calliope said. “I’ve been hoping the stars would align so you’d come visit us up here.”

Mortimer grinned fondly and put an arm around her shoulder. “We were just about to hunt for some dusk stars.”

“Oh, yeah?” Joey asked. “That’s the name of my shoegaze band.”

“Really?”   


“...No. What are dusk stars?”   


Calliope answered, “They’re wandering stars that only appear for a few weeks at a time during the Spring and Fall. You can see them through a  trick of the atmosphere and the light of the setting sun.”

Mort imer added, “So far, we’ve been able to catch a few constellations that we can’t normally see.  It’s pretty fascinating.”

“Wow…” Joey sa id. “ I think we learned about that before .”

He was almost positive Calliope had taught a  class about dus k stars before, but he couldn’t quite remember. Now that he thought about it, though, the fact that these constellations they’ve been seeing weren’t on a constant pattern made him think of his dream. He wondered if the ones that were out now were similar to the ones  _ he’d  _ been seeing?   


Well, there was only one way to find out.

“You wanna have a loo k ?” Mortimer as k ed.   


“Sure!” Joey replied .   


“Wonderful!” Calliope exclaimed. “Let me know if you find any.”

Joey made his way to the telescope. He was about to lean into the lens until Mortimer stopped him.

“Woah, hold on a sec!” he cautioned. “Gotta put the filter on first. Don't want to hurt your eyes.”

He screwed a little cap onto the lens and moved to let Joey peek through it. The view was still a bit bright from the late afternoon, but he was still pretty impressed with what he could see. The tiniest details on a cloud overhead was perfectly visible. If he could see that, maybe he'd be able to find the dusk stars.

He moved the telescope around until he came across a group of four just barely-visible stars. They were close enough to be connected in a sort of curved, vertical line. It seemed to be one of the constellations from his dreams! 

“Hey, I think I see one!” Joey exclaimed.

“May I see?” Calliope asked, and Joey moved so she could take a gander. “Oh! You’ve found Castys.”

She stepped aside, and Joey gazed back into the lens. That was definitely one of the constellations from his dreams! He was sure of it! He was tempted to tell them he’d seen it before, but there was no way they’d believe him. He didn't even know what dusk stars were until less than two minutes ago. Still, knowing more about it would hopefully help him relax a little.

“Can you tell me about this one?” Joey asked.

Mortimer started explaining. “That constellation tells a legend of a woman who built a tower to Heaven. And the gods punished her by throwing her all the way down into the sea.”

Joey shuddered. “ _ Ugh… _ scary.”

“Yes, very,” Calliope agreed. “But even in the depths, Castys refused to die. She’s supposedly still down in the deepest trenches, staring the gods in the eye, still refusing to drown.”   


“Wow… those gods sound like jerks.”

“Well,” Mortimer said, “the gods in those stories are thought of as just stand-ins for things we can’t control. You might say for things like natural disasters or illness.”

As Joey gazed at the constellation, he could almost see the shape of a person. Maybe Castys would be facing upside down, showing how she fell, or how she sank into the sea. He could really respect someone with that much ambition and determination. Seriously: building a tower to Heaven , only to be thrown into the sea, and still refusing to die? 

Like, just straight up not dying because you don’t feel like it? “Bold”  would be a massive understatement for that.

He’d probably get a tattoo of Castys if needles didn’t hurt.   


Joey moved the telescope some more, trying to see if he could find any more stars. It took him a little longer to find any, but he had a better idea of what he was looking for now. Within moments, he’d found another small cluster of stars from his dream. These ones almost looked like someone was holding something out.

“Found another one!” He moved to let Calliope see.   


“Ah, yes,” she murmured. “Dohr, the Murderer.”

“Okay, I’m  _ very  _ interested now.”

“This one’s actually roughly based on a true story,” Mortimer told him. “Dohr up there passed  K i ng Berhn’s process ion in the street. Dohr was quiet and said nothing , and the  king took offense to that.”

Joey pulled away from the telescope. “What happened after that?” he wanted to know.

“Berhn insulted Dohr, his village, his family, and so on and so forth until he went right down to insulting Dohr’s chickens.”

“Damn… Savage.”

“Quite,” Calliope agreed, pulling away from the telescope. “Dohr, in return, took offense to Berhn’s words. So he first murdered Berhn’s chickens, then his ancestral village, then his family.”

“Holy crap..!”

“And when he came forth to Berhn, and the king was silent. So Dohr killed him.”

“Wow…” Joey gasped. “That’s a  _ story  _ right there…”

Mortimer nodded. “So, I’m gonna ask you a scholastic question, Joey.”

Joey knitted his eyebrows. “Am I gonna be graded for this?”

“No,” he replied with a chuckle. “Do you think Dohr is a hero?”

Joey really had to think about that. He wondered what the people he knew would say to that. He was pretty sure Nikita would say he  _ was  _ a hero, citing that no ruler is above anyone else, and they have no right to insult their subjects like that . On the other hand, his Dad would probably say he  _ wasn’t  _ a hero, and that hurting your enemy means that you stooped to their level.

But Joey? He wasn’t sure what to think of Dohr. Obviously, Dohr wasn’t a great person, but he had a constellation named after him. Even though he’d been treated like nothing at the beginning of his story, he still had the rest of the story to be told about him. Maybe he wasn’t a hero, but he might not have been a villain either. So what  _ was  _ he?

Joey decided, “I don’t really know. But it doesn’t really matter, I think?”

“May I ask what you mean by that?” Calliope wanted to know.

“I guess I mean, like... maybe if you were told you were nothing before, or treated like you never mattered, having a story like this proves otherwise. If you have a constellation named after you and the things you did, it meant you were…  _ something _ . And sometimes, that’s all you  _ can  _ be. Does that make sense?” 

Calliope nodded with a knowing smile. “Interesting insight.”

“Yeah,” Mortimer added. “You’ve grown a lot since you were in our classes, Joey.”

It sure didn’t feel that way, but Joey appreciated that anyway.

“So,” Joey said, “how come I’ve never heard of these guys?”

“Well,” Mortimer stated, “by the time these rare stars were discovered, the other myths and legends were already taken. But that’s the beauty of it: you also get to study the story of the universe. Astronomy and history are both really smart in that way.”

“Indeed,” Calliope said. “The wonderful thing about astronomy is that it can be a part of the two latters, and a part of history and science. They tell you all kinds of stor i es, and make you think about all kinds of things.”   


He’d never thought about it that way, but maybe they were right. Chart ing stars dated back for centuries, and it was a vital part of how the world was able to scientifically progress the way it had. Eons and eons of stories and tales were told and created with the passing of the stars.  He wondered if that was how the two of them found each other. Two cur ious vagabonds brought together by a shared love for the story of everything...

_ Damn, I should be writing this down… _ Joey thought to himself.

Well, he technically should have been writing a  _ lot  _ of stuff down. He’s been keeping a journal for the past six years by order of Dr Hank after he’d been diagnosed with an anger problem. If Joey was being honest, though, Dr. Hank wasn’t that good of a doctor. He did at least half a dozen other things: therapy, physiology, dentistry, lots of stuff like that. 

Still, the journals helped Joey grab onto everything and keep himself grounded.

He made a mental note to get back into the habit later that night.

“I think those might be all the stars we can see for now,” Mortimer said.

Joey drooped. “Aww.”

“You’re welcome to come back if you ever feel like it.”

Calliope nodded. “It was nice teaching you once again, Joey.”

“Of course,” Joey said. “It was good to see you guys, too. Thanks for this.”

“Anytime. Say hello to your family for us.”   


“Will do!”

As he started his way home, he wondered how he could dream about those two constellations without knowing about them. It had to be some sort of crazy coincidence. Maybe it was one of those dreams that gave someone a message that they had to wake up? Like if your alarm is about to go off, or your brain is trying to tell you you’re running late for class. But how would that tie into now?

H is phone vibrated in his back pocket with a text from someone. At first, he thought it might have been Nicole. But he saw a message from Colleen.

**Danc** **in’ Queen** **:** wanna come by the shop? it’s been a slow day and i’m bored

“Wow. Colleen actually  _ wants  _ to hang out w ith me?”

Now  _ that  _ was weird.

Still, maybe hanging out with Colleen would do both of them some good. He could tell she still had a wall up, but they were getting along a little better lately. Maybe the fact that she was the one asking him to hang out was a good sign. Besides, after all those stories, he could use some company from a friend(?) right about now.

He texted her back:

**Me:** sure, i’ll be right there. save me a record!

**Dancin’ Queen:** fork over some money and you got a deal

He sent his family a quick text telling them where he would be, and started toward town. Before pocketing his phone again, he opened the Notes app and typed down:

_ Two  _ _ cur _ _ ious vagabonds brought together by a shared love for the story of everything. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen I might not be a major shipper for this show, but... GOD HECCIN' DANG IT if I don't love me some Mortipe!!!
> 
> So my keyboard's been broken for the past couple weeks and I had to copy and paste the letters i, k, commas, and the number eight. Love that for me-
> 
> Next time: Joey accompanies Colleen on a job, and tries to figure out a way to cheer her up when she starts feeling low.


	12. House Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs used in this chapter:
> 
> "The River Flows in You" by Yiruma - Starts at _"She stretched out her hands and started playing."_  
>  "Fireflies on the Porch" from the Night in the Woods soundtrack - Starts at _"Joey spread his arms out and said, “Hey, Colleen! Check this out!”"_

The Strings n’ Things was usually empty whenever Joey came to visit, but it was more busy than usual that day. Well, as busy as a music store in a small town could get anyway. There might have been about fifteen people scattered around in different aisles. Colleen was manning the front desk as per usual, reading some stuff from a clipboard.

“Hello, ma’am,” Joey greeted her.

She looked up and smiled politely. “Hey, Joey.”

“How’s it going?”

“Well... we finally got all those keyboards unloaded, but they ended up coming a lot earlier than we were ready for. The manufacturer usually doesn’t goof up like this.”

“Maybe it’s run by music wizards.”

“Interesting theory.”

He decided to take the opportunity to look at some of the music stuff around the shop. He was there kind of a lot but, he never really thought to buy anything. Colleen usually told him she didn’t mind, but he couldn’t help feeling a little bad. He decided on a CD of an old band that Nicole used to listen to. Maybe he’d give it to her for Christmas as a joke.

“You wanna hang out tonight, Colleen?” he asked.

“I would,” she replied as she rang him up, “but I got a call just before you got here. I’m supposed to go to someone’s house to fix their piano. You can come along if you want.”

“I was thinking more like bowling up in Munwick or something.”

“That’s… that’s actually not a bad idea. But, sorry. Gotta work.”

Joey drooped. “Aww. Girl, what’s even the point?”

“You know - rent, food, clothes, medicine - stuff like that.”

 _Oh. Right,_ Joey remembered. _You need money for that stuff…_

“So do you wanna come?” Colleen asked.

“Y’know what? Yeah. Let’s do it.”

Alright, so maybe this wasn’t exactly what Joey had in mind. He knew nothing about pianos, or how to do Colleen’s job. Still, it was better than nothing. Who knows? Maybe it would be fun.

According to Colleen, they were going to a cabin in the woods belonging to a woman named Mrs. Miranda. She had a husband who used to play the piano all the time, until he eventually got sick and passed away. Mrs. Miranda kept the piano for sentimental reasons, but she didn’t play as much as her husband did. She had it moved to the basement, but the way down hadn’t been very nice to it. It kept knocking into the walls, and it messed up some of the strings and the pedals.

Which brings us to Joey and Colleen.

They arrived at the house at about seven that night, with Colleen’s car parked by the foot of the driveway. It was getting to the time of year where it got dark early, and the moon was already high in the sky. Joey knew some people didn’t really like the darker days, but he thought it added to the atmosphere of October. Good and spooky. The fact that the two of them were out in the woods only added to it.

“So, what I wanna know is,” Joey said, “why does a music shop get house calls?”

“My parents offered a service to people with old instruments that need repairs. Things like pianos, harps or cellos and stuff that are too big to carry out to the shop.”

“Couldn’t you just, like, refuse to do house calls?”

“Not really. People pay me to do them. At least, like, ideally.”

They both stepped out of the car, and they were greeted by a cabin surrounded by what was probably several acres of trees. The yard was nice and big, with plenty of lawn ornaments decorating it. Seriously - flamingos, lawn gnomes, weird looking hedges - you name it, it was there.

“What’s all this stuff doing out here?” Joey asked.

“No idea, but she’s an old lady. She’s got all kinds of weird shit in her yard.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been up here before.”

“Joey Graceffa, you have now been here.”

Despite all the clutter on the lawn, the land was actually really pretty. The sky was perfectly clear, with moonlight shining down on everything. There were sounds of bugs and animals chirping in the distance. Despite how late in the fall it was, a few lightning bugs were flying around like tiny stars near the ground.

“It’s really nice up here,” he said.

“Yeah. A bunch of people turned all these old cabins into houses back in the day. I think some of them were hunting camps.”

“Is it hunting season?”

“Not for a while. Still, people get impatient. Just, like, try not to get shot or anything.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Hold that thought,” Colleen said as she knocked on the door.

Almost instantly, they were answered by a woman in a nightgown and curlers. She looked old - maybe seventy-something. Joey guessed this was Mrs. Miranda. 

“Hello?” she said.

“Hi, Mrs. Miranda?” Colleen guessed.

“What are ya sellin’?”

“Uh… We got a call from you that your piano needed fixing?”

Mrs. Miranda’s eyes widened. “ _Ooooohhhh!_ You’re the young lady I called on the phone earlier!” 

“That’s right.”

Joey asked Mrs. Miranda, “Do you get a lot of people selling you stuff?”

She ignored him. “Come in! Come in!”

The inside of her house was definitely a grandma’s house. A little folding tray table sat in front of a recliner next to the TV, and the mantel was lined up with a bunch of strange looking tchotchkes. It smelled so much like old lady perfume that it must have been blocking out everything else. Well, not quite. There was a bit of a sour something in the air that Joey couldn’t quite name.

He wasn’t sure why, but the house gave him Witch-in-the-Woods vibes. He hadn’t even been there a minute, and he was already wondering if Mrs. Miranda would try to bake them into a pie.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Mrs. Miranda told them.

“No problem,” Colleen replied.

“Yeah,” Joey added. “Happy to help.”

Mrs. Miranda shook her head. “I just can’t seem to tune that daggone piano right. Not ever since Gene passed.”

“Well, we’ll take a look at it,” Colleen assured her.

Joey nudged Colleen’s arm and whispered, “Why did you tell me to hold my thought?”

“Wait for it…” she replied silently.

Mrs. Miranda continued. “Gene was such a darlin’ man. I’ll never forgive ‘em for taking him away…”

Taking him away? Okay, what did she mean by that? Was her husband a criminal or something?

She went on. “It ain’t like I didn’t treat him right, oh no! I looked it up on the internet and everything! He didn’t smell or nothin’!”

Alright, now Joey was just confused. Where was this going?

Colleen whispered to him again. _“Wait for it…”_

“Ya can’t take a woman’s husband just because he's dead!”

Joey’s went from _what the hell?_ to _WHAT THE HELL?!_ in an instant. 

“There it is,” Colleen told him.

Mrs. Miranda put her hands on her hips. “Yup! Took ‘em right off a’ that couch!”

“It’s a crime.”

“A crime was definitely committed alright…” Joey muttered.

“They just couldn’t abide not taxin’ him anymore,” Mrs. Miranda stated, “that’s what it was!”

“Mmhmm,” Colleen muttered. She was clearly as uncomfortable as Joey was.

“But I won’t talk your ears off about it. Why don’t you two come take a look at my fridge while you’re here?”

“Uh…” Joey had no freaking idea how to respond to any of this…

Colleen just shrugged. “We bill by the half hour,” she told the woman.

As Mrs. Miranda walked into her kitchen, he just stared at his friend.

She shook her head. “I know, she’s weird. But I promise she’s harmless. Just go along with it, okay?”

Joey was totally convinced at this point that this lady was secretly a witch or something. Maybe she just lured the two of them here so she could trap them in her cabin and eat them.

They followed Mrs. Miranda into the kitchen, where she was waiting next to a fridge. It was a pretty unspectacular fridge, but she just stood there and looked at them with an expectant smile on her face.

“Is there something wrong with it?” Colleen asked.

“Oh, no,” Mrs. Miranda replied. “There’s no problem. It’s just a classic - original Luna Freeze right here. They were all the rage when I was your age, ya see.”

Joey looked it up and down. “Yeah, I think I saw one of these pretty recently when I got back in town.”

“Oh? Where was it?”

“Lying upside down in a ditch in the woods near where the old playground used to be.”

Mrs. Miranda just stood there and stared at him, not changing her expression. He half expected her to snap and lunge at him with a knife.

“So!” Colleen exclaimed. “The piano?”

“Oh, yes.” Mrs. Miranda pointed to a door. “Right through there, in the basement.”

_Yep. We’re totally gonna die tonight._

Joey leaned over to Colleen and whispered, “Should I have written my will before we got here?”

She nudged his side. “Stop it.”

“It was nice meeting you, ma’am,” he told Mrs.. Miranda.”

“I don’t really know who you are, little person.”

“Little…” he repeated. “I’m almost six feet tall!”

“Okay, down we go!” Colleen said, and she grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the door.

The basement was about what you’d expect: dark, dank and dusty. There was a lot of junk lying around that probably wouldn’t have fit in Mrs. Miranda’s yard. A single weak lightbulb lit up the basement, revealing the piano in one of the far back corners.

Perfect place for a horror movie murder scene.

“Oooh,” Joey mused. “I love creepy basements.”

“Why _wouldn’t_ you?” 

“How much you wanna bet she’s got a few more husbands stashed away in a corner?”

She was clearly trying not to laugh. “Alright, alright. Let’s get this done so we can go home.”

Colleen led them over to the piano, and she started assessing the situation. Joey didn’t really know what to do, so he just watched her as she studied the piano. She walked around it, checking the strings and the little pedals underneath the keys. Finally, she took a seat on the bench and played some strings on the keys. A few of the medium toned notes didn’t sound quite right, and the cringe on Colleen’s face further emphasized that.

Joey sat next to her. “What’s the prognosis, doc?”

“Diagnosis,” Colleen corrected.

“Huh?”

“A prognosis is a guess to an outcome. A diagnosis is identifying the problem and naming it.”

“Alright, _Dr. Ballinger._ What’s the _diagnosis?_ ”

“So it sounds like the A, B and D keys are out of tune right here.” She pointed at a cluster of three keys that were close together. “And a few of the strings were knocked out of place, probably while the piano was being moved. I could actually use your help with this part, Joey.”

“Alright - just tell me what to do.”

Colleen stood up and strolled around to the other side of the piano. She opened the hatch and started tinkering with the strings.

“Press the A key a few times until I give the signal,” she advised him.

He did what she said, and he noticed how out of tune it sounded. It sounded a lot lower than it was probably supposed to sound. As he kept pushing it and Colleen kept messing with the strings, it started getting lighter and lighter.

“Okay, that’s good,” Colleen said. “Now push down those pedals by your feet while I make some adjustments.”

He did what she said, and when she told him to press the key again, Colleen’s face lit up.

“Okay, great! That one’s fixed. Now do the same with the B key.”

They repeated the process with the B key, then the G key. Within minutes, the piano was already sounding better.

“Huh, what do you know?” Colleen marveled as she straightened up. “You _don’t_ break everything you touch.” 

Joey stood back up and beamed. “I am the piano master!”

“I don’t know about that!” she laughed, then crossed back over to the bench. “I’m gonna take one last look at these pedals down here. You just hang out for a bit until I’m done.”

He got up from the bench to give her some room, and she knelt down to mess around with the pedals.

“Are you sure there’s nothing else I can do?” he asked.

“I got it.”

“You sure you’re sure?”

“Mmhmm.”

While Colleen disappeared under the piano, Joey was left to his thoughts. This was a really old piano; who was to say it wouldn’t get messed up again? Surely there was something he could do to keep that from happening. There was all kinds of weird shit in the basement. Maybe he could make some sort of doohickey to ensure the piano would be fixed permanently!

He got to work searching for things he could use. Resting by one of the tool shelves, he found one of those things you use for badminton. Uh… battminton. Badmitten? A racket. He found a racket. That’s what he found.

He went to the shelf to grab it, and noticed a fishing pole was lying on top of the same shelf. Oh yeah, that puppy would _definitely_ be useful! Better yet, he saw a little electric fan right next to it. He could surely do something with that, too! 

He scanned over some boxes next to the stairs, and found a little garden gnome alligator. Perfect! This guy would totally help with fixing the piano… somehow.

He picked it up and said, “I need your expertise to fix that piano, professor.”

“What?” Colleen asked.

“Talking to the lawn gnomigator!”

“...I’m not even gonna ask.”

Okay… a lawn gnomigator, a fishing pole, a racket, and a fan. Well, he couldn’t carry anything else, so he decided that that was enough stuff. He went over to the back of the piano where Colleen had fixed the strings, set everything down, and got to work.

Okay.

He had no idea what he was doing.

“Hmm…”

Maybe he just needed to tie the fishing pole to the thing, and use the line to attach the fan to the other thing. He did just that and scanned it over. Yeah, that looked right! And then he put the lawn gnome on that weird-looking dingus that was attached to the thingamajig. He had the gnomigator bite down on the whatsit while the racket acted as a handle. He figured good hard pull on the latter would probably do it.

Yeah… _now_ he was getting somewhere! Okay. He just needed to focus… Work this out…

Crap. He suddenly realized how hungry he was. How long had it been since he ate something that day?

“Hey, Colleen!” he called. “I’m hungry!”

“Not now, Joey!”

“Can we get donuts on the way home?”

“No! Wait… Okay, maybe.”

Right, back to business! He finished his doohickey, stepped back, and admired his work.

Not too shabby, if he said so himself! He was like an engineer! Or, like, a person who builds machines? 

“A machingineer?” He had to say that word out loud. “Hey, Colleen! What’re those people that make machines?”

 _“Ignoooorrriiiiing!”_ she sang.

Oh, well. It was finished! The piano was totally repaired now!

“Okay,” he said. “Time to give this baby a whirl.”

He reached out to pull the racket when -

“Fixed it!” Colleen exclaimed.

“What?”

 _Aw, man! Already?_

Colleen popped back up and went over to him. Her expression changed when she saw the absolute masterpiece of a doohickey he created. “Alright, I think we’re done- What… did you do?”

She didn’t look impressed now, but she’d better hold onto her wig!

Joey spread his arms out. “I’ve engineered an elegant, long term solution!”

And right as he said that, the entire doohickey came undone, and all the parts fell all over the floor.

His arms dropped. “Goddammit.”

Colleen started laughing. “Good job, Joey! Now never fix anything again.”

“Ah, freakin’ crap! It was totally gonna work!”

“I’m sure it was. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to make sure it sounds right.”

He stepped aside so she could sit on the bench. She moved her hands across the ivories from low to high, and a beautiful scale of notes rang out.

“You still know how to play!” Joey realized.

“Yeah, I play that piano at the back of the shop all the time.”

“Can I hear something?”

Colleen looked down. “Uh… I don’t know. I’m more used to playing the one in the shop.”

“Oh, come on! _Pleeeeaase?_ ”

“Well…”

“Think of it like a test. We’re just checking to make sure it’s in good shape.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” She sighed. “Fine. But don’t make fun of me if I suck.”

“Girl, I suck more at _everything_ than you ever will at anything.”

“You don’t, but alright.”

She stretched out her hands and started playing. The notes started off slowly at first, but picked up speed just a bit to play an enchanting melody. It sounded sad and sweet, and it almost made Joey want to cry.

“That song sounds familiar,” Joey said.

She didn’t look up or stop playing when she spoke. “You might have heard it before. It’s ‘The River Flows in You’ by Yiruma. My Dad taught me how to play it when Mom was in the hospital.”

She shut her eyes when she got to the chorus, but she didn’t falter. The song carried itself through the basement, and it felt like they were the only things in the room. Just Joey, Colleen, and the piano. He just barely noticed it, but her eyebrows furrowed the slightest bit. It was like Colleen suddenly felt like crying, too…

Joey felt a little confused. Colleen had always loved music ever since they were kids. She’d always belt out whatever Disney song anyone had or hadn’t wanted to hear when they were at summer camp. She knew how to play at least three or four instruments that he knew of. She was president of the drama club at their high school pretty much the entire time. She played Cinderella in _Into the Woods_ their senior year, and she totally killed it. 

But whenever he walked into the shop, even when Colleen flashed him a smile, he couldn’t help but wonder what she was hiding behind that look.

She took a deep breath then the song was over. Joey gave her a little applause, and her eyes widened. Joey wondered if she’d forgotten he was there.

“That was pretty, Colleen,” Joey said.

She flushed. “Thanks. Uh… Are you ready to head back up?”

“Sure thing.”

By the grace of God, they somehow didn’t end up getting locked in the basement. Mrs. Miranda _did_ need to be reminded who they were and what they were doing in her basement. But hey, nobody got baked into a pie! She even gave them some hot chocolate for their work!

After everything was said and done, the two of them left the house and were standing on the porch.

“Well,” Joey stated. “I believe that turned out nicely!”

“Yep.” Colleen was sitting on the stairs, staring out into the night.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Mrs. Miranda gave us hot chocolate.”

“Yeah…”

Joey was starting to get a little worried now. He sat down next to her and asked, “You don't like hot chocolate?”

Here eyebrows rose and she whirled in his direction. “Dude, are you kidding? That shit’s like Jesus Juice!”

“Then what's going on?”

Colleen sighed. “Just tired, I guess. Worked all day, and… yeah.”

He remembered what Teala had said a few weeks ago about how much Colleen was working to keep her parents’ shop up and running. He would have thought she’d love working at her parents old music shop, but she always seemed so… sad. He figured it had a lot to do with the fact that it was her _parents’_ shop. Joey never really knew what it was like to lose family like that. He couldn’t imagine what that must have been like for her.

Colleen looked at him after a moment. “So… can I ask you something?”

“Hm?”

“When you were at school, did you ever decide on a major?”

“Um… no. I didn’t, actually.”

She shrugged. “Well, you were only a little ways into your second year. I guess that makes sense.”

Wow. He hadn’t even given that much thought. His family had worked hard to send him off to school, and he’d never figured out what he wanted to study. What was even the deal with that, anyway? Was he just supposed to figure out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life immediately after he graduated high school? He didn’t even know what he was going to have for lunch the next day.

“What about you?” Joey asked her. “What would you study in college if you could go?”

Colleen tapped her fingers against her knees. “Um… musical theatre.”

“I could definitely see you doing that.”

“I know people give majors like that their fair share of crap, but there’s a lot of jobs out there for artists and actors.” 

Her gaze traveled to her shoes. The appeal of college was gone as far as Joey was concerned, but Colleen really wanted that. One of her schools of choice was the same one Joey had attended. He wondered what would have happened if things turned out differently? If Joey hadn’t decided to drop out, and Colleen’s parents were still around, would they have gone to college together like Manny and Nikita? Would they still be as close as those two were?

“Is there anything I can do?” he asked her.

“Nah, I’ll be fine, I think. Just need to sit for a sec.”

She really did sound tired. Colleen definitely wasn’t the same person she was when Joey had last seen her. She’d grown up so quickly since then, maybe too much for her own good. He wished there was something he could do to give her a new perspective, but it would take some kind of magical shit to do that.

He stood up and said “I'm gonna explore the yard for a bit.”

“Have fun. I’ll be here.”

Joey wandered around the yard, trying to find something to show Colleen. Mrs. Miranda certainly had a lot of stuff in her yard, but none of it was really magical. Well there was an oversized toadstool, but it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t real.

“Come on, magic,” he said. “Where are you?”

The answer came to him as a pair of fireflies flew up to investigate him. They circled around him, probably checking to see if he was a friend. They’ve done this ever since Joey was young. He was never really sure why fireflies did this with him. Maybe he was a firefly in a past life or something?

And that’s when he got it. He remembered a night at summer camp when Colleen was feeling particularly homesick. When Joey was running around the grounds, trying to find something cool to show her, a bunch of fireflies had gathered around him. He’d brought them to her cabin to show her, and that did the trick for her. Maybe it would work again.

He wandered around the yard a little longer, trying to move slowly so he wouldn’t lose the fireflies. One by one, the fireflies approached him. It took a minute, but he was soon surrounded by a couple dozen fireflies. Back on the porch, Colleen was tracing a stick along a patch of dirt. He slowly returned and stopped right in front of her.

Joey spread his arms out and said, “Hey, Colleen! Check this out!”

She looked up from the ground and gasped.

“Woah..! I…” she giggled a bit. “How are you doing that? Are you, like, a firefly whisperer or something?”

Joey shrugged and shook his head. “They just like me, I guess!”

“That’s… huh. Joey Graceffa, you are a very interesting person.”

“When I was a kid, my Dad always told me that ‘interesting’ is all you can hope to be.”

She smiled. “Well, mission accomplished.”

He took his seat next to her, and the fireflies started circling around both of them. Colleen reached out and cupped one of them in her hands. When she opened them, the firefly blinked at her. Joey wondered if it was saying something to her. Whatever it was, he hoped it was nice.

“You know…” she said. “This would have been a lot more boring if you hadn’t come with me.”

Joey grinned. “I’m pretty alright to have around.”

“You can certainly build the hell out of a… whatever that was supposed to be.”

“Well, I think I’m good at a lot of things until they fall all over the floor.”

“You should do that more often. Like… channel your emotions into something useful. That’s what Nikita did with volleyball.”

Joey shrugged. “Dr. Hank said a long time ago that I needed to repress it.”

Colleen made a face. “Repress? Not, like, ‘learn to deal with it?’”

“I specifically remember him saying ‘repress.’”

“Hmm…” She didn’t seem to like that.

They sat there for a moment in silence. It wasn’t the same silence that Colleen gave him in her car when she was angry at him. This felt different. There was no tension, no pressure not to do anything wrong. There was just them. Just two friends watching fireflies on a porch.

“So…” Joey said. “Do you think Mrs.. Miranda, like, pulled her husband's guts out or something?”

Colleen shrugged. “Beats me. I’m pretty sure they did that for mummies, though.”

Joey sneered at her. “Do you think you’d have the _stomach_ for it?”

“Nope.”

“I bet it has a lot of _heart_.”

She snickered. “Okay, you’re starting to sound like Matt. Also, I'm pretty sure that stayed in place.”

“Yeah right where it _be-lungs!_ ” 

Colleen popped up onto her feet and started walking away. “Bye, Joey!”

He got up and followed her, yelling, “I bet she really _rectum!_ ”

“Leaving now!”

“I just wish she’d _ex-spleen_ it to us!” 

“You’re walking home, Joseph!”

“You really gotta _liver_ your life, Colleen!”

“I’m calling the cops!” she laughed.

He really hoped his amazing puns wouldn’t hinder the possibility of getting donuts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like writing Joey's and Colleen's characters’ relationship in EtN stories. It's really interesting getting to experiment with it like this.  
> Let's just hope it gets better from here huh?
> 
> Next time: Joey has another dream...


	13. Astral Coal Town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song used in this chapter:  
> "Astral Coal Town" from the Night in the Woods soundtrack - Starts at _"Right next to him was a pillar similar that held one of the band members."_
> 
> Tws: Falling from a height and rodents

_ Joey wasn’t dreaming about the stars in the woods that night. Instead, he found himself standing alone in the middle of Everlock, but it wasn’t  _ his  _ Everlock _ . __

_ Judging by the fountain in the middle of some sort of plaza, this must have been an older version of Towne Centre. All of the buildings seemed closer to one another, almost to the point that you could walk along their roofs. Everything looked newer and less beaten down. He saw the laundromat that went out of business when he was in college, but there was no pastry shop or seafood joint. In each of their respective places were a thrift shop and a 10-cent store. _

_ “How long ago was this..?” Joey wondered. _

_ He started wandering, and he was able to walk up a slanted roof attached to the ground. He vaguely remembered seeing photos of the Towne Center that were somewhat like this. Maybe he was in Everlock from the early days, back when the mines were still prospering. The air felt a lot more musty, and he could hear the sound of clanking metal and the faint humming of a machine from somewhere far away. _

_ The town’s buildings started to shift around and change in size and appearance. This included the rooftops of the buildings he was walking on. He would occasionally have to either stop until he was able to step onto the next roof, or leap across a gap between the buildings. It almost felt like some kind of slow-moving obstacle course. _

_ He was so distracted by the alternate Everlock surrounding him that he stepped right off of a dark tile roof. The drop was so much higher than it probably had been a moment ago. He screamed as he fell dozens of stories down. His body sped up as he got closer to the ground, but at the last second, he was slowed to a halt. He landed on his feet, soft as a feather and totally unharmed. _

_ “Well… thank you dream world.” _

_ Right next to him was a pillar similar that held one of the band members. This time, he saw the accordion-playing crocodile first. He began to play a tune in time with the clanking noises, but it wasn’t like the one Joey was used to hearing. This song was aggressive and had a slightly faster pace. It made Joey wonder if a biker gang with amazing hair would come marching toward him as they snapped to the rhythm. _

_ He went off to explore the rest of the town, being more careful where he was going this time. As he walked, he came across the saxophone-playing bird with the long beak. He joined in with his crocodile friend, and it honestly sounded like a nice combination to Joey. _

_ Everything continued to morph and shift around as he got further and further into town. Each of the businesses he was passing seemed to be slowly turning into another. He saw a bra store that morphed into a whole clothing store, a bakery that turned into a small grocery store, and a 20s-looking pub that changed into a 50s diner by the name of Speedy’s. As he got closer to the latter, he noticed how similar the shape of the building was to Fatman Slims. _

_ Joey had heard about Speedy’s before, but he didn’t know it used to be a bar before it was a diner. Come to think of it, he hadn’t really bothered to look into the place that much, even when he’d heard that Fatman Slims hadn’t always been there. It seemed like there were even things about his  _ home  _ that he hadn’t known about... _

_ The third pillar was in the middle of a small pond. It couldn’t have been bigger than twenty or so feet in diameter. He walked down the pier and hopped over the edge, prepared for a swim. Once his feet touched the surface of the water, though, he didn’t go under. He was just standing on the water as if it were a hardwood floor. _

_ “Oh. Well… Guess I’m Jesus now.” _

_ He jogged to the center of the pond to find the violin-playing bird. He had to say, he kind of enjoyed hearing the violin player the most. On the other side of the lake, he came across the tuba-playing bear. He joined the ensemble just in time for the song to finish and then start again with all four instruments. _

_ Joey couldn’t help but wonder who this band was. They all appeared in his dreams every single night to play music as he wandered around wherever this place was. A part of him was starting to consider them friends, but there was something strange about them. The band members all had a sort of ghostly feel to them. The way their pillars would light up and reveal them, and the way their music carried into the wind so Joey could hear them perfectly no matter where he was… _

_ He didn’t know... _ _  
_

_ He discovered a path leading through the woods and decided to follow it. That was when he noticed how much heavier the air was getting. There was a smog that was just barely visible, causing some of the colors to turn a bit saturated from a distance. It almost smelled like the outside of Everlock usually did, but this smell was more intense. _

_ The trees got thicker and thicker along with the air, until Joey eventually had to pull his shirt over his nose to keep from breathing in too much of whatever-this-was. Eventually, the brush quite literally parted away to make room for Joey. The sound of snapping wood and rustling leaves surrounded him as he stepped out into the open. The clanking metal seemed to be getting louder as he got further away from the trees. _

_ He found himself staring down into the abandoned quarry outside of Everlock. He remembered learning about this place back in elementary school. The quarry was made early into Everlock’s creation in the mideighteen-hundreds. They mined out the coal in the ground relatively quickly, so it wasn’t very big. Maybe about as big as a small lake you’d see on the side of a road, and less than a kilometer or so deep. Once the coal in the quarry was gone, they created a system of mines to get more. Joey could see the entrance amidst the old machinery… that was running? _

_ To his surprise, the equipment down in the quarry was operating smoothly as though it were never left behind. The clanking and humming he’d been hearing was coming from some of the coal processing machines. The smell and smog in the air was coming from the old mills puffing out smoke. _

_ All of a sudden, he heard the same loud GONG! he’d been hearing every night. The machinery froze. The music went quiet. _

_ Joey expected the giant bear to come out from somewhere at first, but he watched as a rat the size of a skyscraper began to emerge from the mines. The opening was too small for it, so the earth around it shifted and broke apart. The machines were shoved aside and reduced to pieces like they were nothing more than toys. Conveyor belts and lumps of coal went flying as the rat finally came to its full size. The top of its head reached just as high as Joey was above the floor of the quarry. _

_ It turned to Joey. They locked eyes. It released an ear splitting scream as Joey, the quarry, the town, the woods, and everything around them dissolved into billions of stars. _

_ … _

_ Then everything was still. _

_ Everything was silent. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This dream easily had one of my favorite songs in the game
> 
> The past few weeks have been pretty stressful for me, but writing this has really been helping to lift my mood. I hope you guys are liking it too, I'd appreciate it if you guys left a comment telling me what you think so far :)
> 
> Next time: Joey tries to confide in his friends about his dreams, and something seems off in his house.


	14. Rainy Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: there's a bit of a fight between friends, and some anxiety about adulthood
> 
> Songs in this chapter:  
> "I Wish (You Were Mine)" by Anders - starts at the beginning of the chapter. (A good rainy day song imo)

The next few days were exactly how Joey was feeling - gray, gross, and rainy. It wasn’t the kind of rain you could go out in with nothing but a jacket. It was the kind that threw itself to the ground by the bucketload. If he was being honest, he could go for that. His morning headaches weren’t really going away, and neither were his dreams. That combined with the weather made him feel tired more often than usual.

He was normally all for running around in the rain, but he hadn’t really felt up to leaving the house. All he wanted to do during those days was wrap himself up in a blanket burrito, wander around the house, listen to gloomy music and watch YouTube videos. It was almost like his last few months at college, only with slightly less anxiety. Actually, Joey couldn’t really place a name to what he was feeling during those days. He wasn’t particularly sad, or nervous, or happy. He just sort of coasted along on a general feeling of _“blaugh.”_

He eventually got a slight break from that feeling on a Friday night while he was on a video call with the rest of his friends. It was standard stuff for the most part - the college crew talking about their lives at school, the Everlock crew talking about their lives at home.

Rosanna concluded her story. “And then the entire cake exploded! It took, like, an hour to clean everything up!” She was sitting on her bed in her dorm room up in Seattle.

Matt cracked up. “That’s what he gets for using baking soda instead of baking powder! I would have thought that was basic science” He was in his own dorm in North Carolina, thousands of miles away.

“You think _everything_ is basic science!” Roi commented. He probably wasn’t more than a few hours from Matt. “Man, I wish I could have seen that!” 

Colleen laughed, looking up from some stuff at her desk. “When was the last time you baked, Roi?”

“Uh… a year ago?”

Safiya rolled her eyes fondly. “No offense, Roi, but I wouldn’t trust you with an oven.” Joey could see some little fairy lights that looked like bats on her ceiling behind her.

“I have to agree with Morticia on this one.” Nikita said as she adjusted herself on her couch in her and Manny’s apartment. 

Teala chimed in from her kitchen. “Jc and I barely let him use it anymore after the apple pie incident!” She passed some spice over to Jc, who was messing around with a skillet next to her.

“Oh! I remember that,” Jc exclaimed. “We were scraping brown sugar and apples off the walls for a week!”

Manny walked back into frame and plopped down next to Nikita. “Girl, who’s letting Roi near an oven?”

“No one, apparently!” Roi exclaimed exasperatedly.

The group burst out laughing. Joey liked that he still had three friends who still lived in Everlock, even if it would just be for a while. He just wished it was easier to visit the rest of them. Safiya was still in California, but she lived hours away now. Rosanna had an entire state between her and Everlock. Roi, Matt, Manny and Nikita were all the way on the other side of the country.

Every so often, his head would cut into their conversation and remind Joey that it might not last forever. After all, everyone had their own lives to worry about. What with most of them off at college, and a few of them getting ready to move away. He still had Colleen, but she had her parents’ store to worry about. As for Joey… well… he still didn’t know what he’d be doing. He would sometimes get the thought that they’d all drift away, and their friendships would eventually be forgotten. And that thought was never easy to brush off. Thoughts like that always had a habit of sticking with him, then he’d keep ruminating on them until he eventually got too worn down to deal with them. He really wished he’d stop doing that.

He tried to focus on whatever Teala and Jc were cooking. He could hear something sizzling and a timer going off. Whatever it was, it was making him hungry. Still, better than thinking about the inevitability of his friends leaving him.

Colleen took a bite of grilled cheese. “So, anyone else got some stories?” she asked with her mouth full. “I desperately need some entertainment other than all these bills.”

The words came out of Joey’s mouth before he could stop them. “I’ve been having weird dreams lately.”

Manny raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Oh, _really?_ What sort of dreams, sir?” 

Joey laughed. “Oh, my God! _No!_ Nothing like that! They were just, like… really strange.”

Jc seemed instantly interested in that. “Strange how?

Why did Joey say that? Where would he even begin to explain the dreams he’d been having? He had theories that they might be visions or something, but there was no way he could tell anyone that. They wouldn’t believe him in a million years. Still, a few of them used to be into dream interpretation - namely Jc and Safiya. Maybe they could help him sort through some of this and give him some piece of mind.

He told them about the dream world, the band he saw, and the giant animals he would always see at the very end.

Jc gave that a bit of thought. “Well, I’m not so sure about the rest of that stuff, but the ghost band does sound familiar.”

Colleen added, “I think I actually heard a story about a band from the twenties that could astral project.”

“What does that mean?” Roi asked.

Jc explained, “It’s like this out of body experience where your soul leaves your body while you sleep.”

Joey blinked. “You mean like a ghost?”

“Not exactly. But some people have said they’ve had experiences where they travel around their house while they’re sleeping. Like, they’ll see one of their family members watching a movie in another room, but their family won’t see them. Then when they wake up, their family is still in that room watching the same movie.” 

Joey could almost feel a chill running up his spine. Could he have been seeing projections of that band? He couldn’t be too sure, considering he’d never seen them before. But what about _him?_ He would always be in the same world, just in different parts. What if he was having some sort of out-of-body experience in a different universe? Was that even possible?

Nikita asked, “And you said you saw images of dusk star constellations, too?”

Joey nodded. “Yeah - they were really vivid and clear. And, like, the weird part is that I never saw them before. Not until Calliope and Mortimer showed them to me.”

Teala blinked. “Woah, really? That’s a little weird...”

“Maybe it’s some sort of deja vu?” Safiya suggested. “Or it could be this thing called deja reve.”

“What’s that mean?” Joey asked.

“It’s a little like deja vu. Deja reve this phenomenon when someone experiences something in their waking life that they’ve already dreamed about. Like, you’ll be having a conversation with someone and you’ll have this feeling that you had a dream where you were talking about the exact same thing.”

Joey was even more unsettled now. He definitely remembered a few times where he’d felt that before, like when he actually saw the real life constellations.

“Maybe…” he said cautiously.

“Well, you never know,” Safiya added with a creepy smile. “Some people say it signifies the start of a new destiny. So congrats, Joey. You might be a whole new person now!”

Joey chuckled. “You’re being real creepy today, girl.”

Matt rolled his eyes. “Okay, Saf, don’t freak everybody out.”

“It’s what I do,” she said jokingly.

Matt sighed and said, “Well, he doesn’t need cryptic stuff right now.”

Safiya furrowed her eyebrows. “I’m just messing around. Don’t be such...”

“Such _what,_ exactly?”

“ _This_. You always get like this lately.”

“Funny how _you're_ the one telling _me_ this.”

Rosanna cut in. “Guys, hey! Play nice, or you’re both grounded!”

 _Okay... what the_ _heck?_ Joey thought.

Matt and Safiya shut up, but they both seemed put off. Joey knew it was probably none of his business, but he always had a hard time moving past arguments between his friends like that.

Safiya’s idea didn’t sound _totally_ off, though. It was no question that Joey’s been getting that feeling a lot lately. Not to mention how tired he’d been the past few days, but he’d just chalked that up to the weather. His head was starting to hurt again, but he had trouble calming his brain when there was so much going on inside it already. 

Jc suggested, “How about we move onto something more lighthearted, huh?”

“I’m fine with that,” Joey agreed. “You guys are all still coming home for Harfest, right?”

“Of course!” Roi told him.

“Ditto!” Manny added.

“Girl, is that even a question?” Nikita asked.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Safiya added.

“I kinda have to be there,” Matt said, “but I’d still come.”

“Me too!” Rosanna added. “This year’s gonna be so much fun!”

Harfest was a big festival they held in celebration of Everlock’s first bountiful harvest - hence the name. It was always held in the Towne Centre with games, rides, and a play that told the story of how Everlock was founded. Since Matt’s and Rosanna’s parents worked as curators with the Historical Society, the two of them always had a role in the plays. That was how they got the rest of their eight friends into Harfest for free every year since they were kids.

Colleen asked, “Matt, Ro, are you guys still gonna be in the Harfest play this year?”

Their faces fell.

“Well,” Matt said, “the thing is, the play sort of operates on volunteers to play all the parts. We’ve basically had no one this year.”

“Oh, no!” Joey replied. “So the play is off?”

Neither Matt or Rosanna answered that, but they both stared into their cameras. It was almost like they were having some sort of psychic conversation, probably with each other.

“What?” Joey asked.

Rosanna made a face, covered her mouth with her hand, took her hand back down, then pressed both her hands together. “Okay,” she said. “So here’s the thing. You guys won’t have that many lines…”

Nikita cut her off with a sharp, “No.”

“Hold up,” Colleen said. “You guys want us to take over the show?”

“Come on! Please?!” Rosanna begged. “Nobody’s signed up for it except me and Matt, and our parents are freaking out!”

Matt added, “It’s like nobody else cares about the show anymore! Please, guys? They’re fun parts!”

“Matthew,” Joey said. “Rosanna.”

“Yeah?” they both replied.

“I, for one, will totally save your asses!”

Joey barely even needed to consider the idea of being in the play. He loved it ever since he was a kid, and now Matt and Rosanna were giving him a chance to actually act in it? Sign him the eff _up!_

Rosanna lightened up a little. “Really?!”

“Yeah!” Joey replied. “I think we all remember it from when we were younger, right?”

Matt interjected. “Actually, the Chamber of Commerce rewrote it, like, six times in the past few years to be spookier. So it’s pretty much twenty percent actual history and eighty percent spooks now.”

“So it’s basically fake history now?”

“It’s like a bad remake that doesn’t respect the source material. It starts off normal but gets… Yeah.”

“Spookier,” Rosanna concluded.

Colleen shrugged and said, “Alright, sure. I acted in that train wreck a couple years ago. It’ll be funny.”

“You did?” Joey asked. “When was this?”

“It was while you were at college last year. I’ve seen firsthand how much it disrespects the source material.”

The rest of the group was in, too. Nikita needed a little more coaxing, but eventually agreed to it when she decided it would be less boring than last year’s play.

“You guys are the best!” Rosanna told them.

“Seriously,” Matt said. “We owe you guys one!”

Nikita pointed at her camera. “You two are both buying me dinner for this!”

They all chatted for a little while longer until, a little after eleven, everyone finally signed off. He leaned back in his chair and tried to make sense of his head. Everything was starting to get jumbled.

“I should write this down…” he decided.

He pulled his notebook out of a drawer in his desk. It was the same one he’d had for about a year, and he’d barely even touched it. It was a composition notebook with blue wolf designs printed on it, and it was probably a cooler design than his old notebooks. He almost felt bad for neglecting it all this time.

He opened it up to a clean page and took his thoughts out on his pen. He doodled some pictures from his dreams. He jotted down what he learned about astral projection and deja reve. He drew a picture of Matt and Safiya bickering. Everything he wrote was short and straightforward. It was mostly things like: _“Am I a psychic?” “Your friends will forget you.” “Everything feels bad.” “Blah blah dumb shit.”_

It never really mattered what he did with the journal, or what he wrote about. Sometimes it just helped to grab hold of everything he was thinking about and keep them in one place. By the time he was finished, he finally felt like he could let his brain rest. He felt a little better now that some of his thoughts were out of his head and into his journal. Dr. Hank might have been a shitty doctor, but the journals did help Joey, if only for a short moment at a time.

He went downstairs to find Dad and Nicole still awake, watching TV. Well, technically his Dad was the only one watching TV. Nicole was sitting on the couch and staring at her phone. Whatever she was looking at, she wasn’t liking it.

He plopped down on the other side of the couch from Nicole. “Hey, family.”

“Hey, Joey,” Dad said. “How’s the gang doing?”

“Good right now. Except, well… Matt and Safiya had a sort of argument earlier.”

“Really? What about?”

Joey shook his head. “I don’t even know. I just hope it doesn’t happen again. On a lighter note, though, the Harfest play needs more people, so my friends and I are gonna be in it together now.”

“Are you? Sounds exciting!”

Nicole glanced up. “Hm? Oh, yeah. Sounds great, Joey.”

“Everything okay, girl?” Joey asked her.

“Mhm. Just adult stuff.”

“What kind of adult stuff?” he asked in a perky tone. “I’m adult stuff!”

She scowled at him, and his smile faltered. Apparently, Nicole wasn’t in the mood for perkiness.

“Just, like… budgets, bills, numbers,” she told him. “A lot of adulthood involves number stress.”

“Oof, that’s not good for me. I suck at numbers.”

“Oh, I remember.” She stood up from the couch and looked back at them. “I gotta head upstairs.”

“Okay, honey,” Dad said.

“Are you sure everything’s okay?” Joey asked.

“Yeah, Joey. Don’t worry about it.”

Her voice was more monotone than he was used to. He watched as she hurried out and heard her taking the stairs.

Once she was out of earshot, Joey asked Dad, “What was that about?”

Dad nodded. “She might just be a little stressed, Joey. Try not to worry too much about it.”

That was the thing. Whenever someone tells you not to worry about something, it’s usually something to worry about.

“I don’t know,” Joey said. “She sounded kinda vague.”

“Hate to tell you, bud, but you spend a lot of adulthood being vaguely stressed.”

“Oh… I thought the stress would at least get more specific.”

“Oh, don’t worry, you’ll have that, too.”

“Well, that’s comforting.”

Joey could name at least a few specific things that were worrying him at that moment. Of course there was everything he wrote about, but it felt a little less intense now. But now there was Nicole’s mysterious stress. And for the past few days, since he’s been stuck at home, he noticed how much he was feeling like he wasn’t doing enough. He wasn’t hanging out with anyone or going around town, so he was really quick to notice how little he was doing.

Maybe it was time he looked for a job or something. Nicole had her catering job to keep herself busy. Dad had his job at the Ham Panther. And some of his friends had their jobs around town.

“So, how’s work?” Joey asked.

“Better than the glass factory. I’ve mined, I’ve worked machines, but now I get to slice hams and hack salamis. It’s easier on the back, that’s for sure.”

“But, like, do you _like_ it?”

Dad just shrugged and said, “I like having a paycheck.”

“Fair.”

“Paychecks: The sweetest meats of all.”

That was another thing about growing up that Joey might have been stressed about. Dad had a new job that he didn’t even like that much. He knew he basically needed a job to survive, but he still didn’t know what he wanted to do. What if he never figured that out? What if he’d just get stuck stuffing people’s groceries in bags again? What if he’d be stuck doing that for the rest of his life? What if…

What if…

Ugh.

Why was everything full of so many what ifs right now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The weather's been pretty crappy where I live for a while, so this chapter was kinda therapeutic to write. And with video chats becoming a regular thing with everything going on in the world, there was something comforting about writing this chapter. Make sure to reach out to your friends you might not have seen in a while, they might appreciate it.
> 
> Next time: The weather finally clears up, and we get to see a couple of familiar faces. Also, Jc and Joey hang out and catch up out by the train tracks.


	15. Out By the Train Tracks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _ **MAJOR DISCLAIMER:** PLEASE DO NOT WALK ON, SIT ON, OR LIE DOWN NEXT TO TRAIN TRACKS!!! IT'S REALLY DANGEROUS!!! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY DO NOT DO THIS!!!_  
> Get it? Got it? Good.  
> Don't try it.
> 
> Anywho, cw for mention of smoking
> 
> Songs used in this chapter:  
> "Mountains" by Message to Bears - plays at the beginning of the chapter, in the shop  
> "Through the Cellar Door" by Lanterns on the Lake - starts at, _“It’ll come, dude. It’ll come,” Jc promised him. He pointed to the left and said, “Like that train there.”_

The next couple of days were a little better. The rain finally stopped, but it left a shitton of fog behind that didn’t go away for a day and a half. A few more sinkholes opened up, but none of them were big enough to swallow a house. It  _ did  _ mean more roadwork needed to be done as a result, making some of the far parts of town inaccessible.

Joey visited Jc and Teala at The Grounds on the first sunny day in almost a week. Their eyes lit up when he walked inside.

“Hey, Joey!” Teala beamed. “I was hoping we’d see you today.”

“Hey, guys!” he greeted them. “Hope you guys didn’t miss me too much.”

Jc nodded. “Yeah, man. Been pretty quiet without you here to disturb the peace.”

Joey went ahead and ordered a drink. The shop was empty of customers except for one other person sitting by the front window. He looked like he’d been ripped straight out of the 1970s, from his long dark hair to his tassel vest and bellbottoms. He looked up from the book he was reading and locked eyes with Joey.

“How’s it hangin’, man?” the guy asked. He sounded like he was talking to an old friend and not a random stranger in a coffee shop.

Yep. This guy was  _ definitely  _ a time-travelling hippie.   


“Oh!” Teala gasped. “Joey, this is Pancho. You know, the guy with the cool belt buckles we told you about at the mall?”

Pancho chuckled and held his hand out. “Good to meet you, Joey. And nice to hear my belt buckles are such a hot topic.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Joey said as he shook his hand. He was a little surprised by how firm Pancho’s grip was. “Are you new to Everlock?”

“Been here about six months, actually.”   


“Oh. New to me, at least. How’d you end up here?”

“I’ve been driving around the country for the past couple of years. Found this place and decided to hang out for a while. I guess I could consider this place my home at this point.”   


Jc glanced up from the espresso machine. “Why you decided to settle down here baffles me. Still, it’s good having you here.”

Pancho leaned back and took a sip of his coffee. “What can I say? Everlock’s been growing on me. Nice place, nice people. Figured I might as well enjoy it here while I can.”

Joey just met Pancho, but he already liked the guy. He had such a mellow vibe that made Joey feel like he was talking to another Jc.   
His attention was turned to something else when he heard a soft “mrow?” from the cluster of sofas surrounding a wooden coffee table. Joey walked over to get a look, and his face immediately broke out into a wide grin. Curled up on one of the cushions was a beautiful black cat. She looked so small, maybe no more than a year or two old. She stirred awake and gazed up at him. Her eyes were so yellow! Like, almost gold level yellow.

“Hello..!” Joey cooed. “Where did you come from?”   


_ “Mrah,” _ the cat replied.

Joey had seen people bringing their dogs into the shop before, but this was the first time he’d seen a cat in there.

“We found her outside the other week,” Teala said. “She was sleeping between the trash cans and she looked cold, so we took her to the vet and cleaned her up.”   


“What’s her name?” Joey asked.

“She doesn’t really have one yet,” Jc told him. “We’d take her in, but our apartment doesn’t allow pets. Our manager’s been taking care of her and bringing her here every so often.”

Joey sat down next to the cat, being careful not to disturb her too much. She stretched herself out, crawled into his lap and snuggled into his jacket. She purred softly as he stroked her back. It was at that moment he decided that if anyone hurt this little one, he would destroy them and everything they held dear. 

_ Is this what it feels like to be a Dad? _ Joey found himself thinking.

Pancho smirked. “Looks like you got a new friend, Johnny.”

“It’s Joey,” he corrected. “Joey Graceffa.”

Pancho nodded. “Pancho. Just Pancho.”

“Teala,” Teala added. “Teala Dunn.”

“Jc Caylen,” Jc concluded. “Short for Justin Cloud Caylen.”

Joey snickered. He still had trouble believing that was his whole name.

Jc perked up. “Oh, by the way, Joey - I’m actually kinda glad you showed up. I wanted to know if you wanted to come out to the train tracks with me.”

“The train tracks?” Joey repeated. “That’s a little out of the way, isn’t it?”   


“They’re actually not that far of a walk from here, and it’s about time for my lunch break. You up for an adventure?”

“Well, I would be, but I think I’ve become a bed for this cat.”   


And right as he said that, the cat pushed herself up and leaped onto the floor. She wandered up to Pancho and curled up next to his shoe.

“Well,” Joey said. “It appears I no longer have a purpose.”

Pancho laughed. “I’ll keep an eye on this one for ya while you’re gone. Make sure she doesn’t try to take a nap in someone’s lunch.”

Teala picked up a stack of styrofoam cups and started setting them up. “I’ll hold down the fort, Jc. Just be back in, like, an hour. The afternoon rush is supposed to start around then.”

“Will do,” Jc assured her.

He untied his apron and walked to the front of the store. Joey got up to follow him, and waved before they walked out. 

“Later, Teala,” Joey called. “Nice to meet you, Pancho.”   


“See you ‘round, Joey Graceffa,” Pancho told him back, confirming that he’d remembered his name after he repeated it.

“Stay safe, guys!” Teala added.

It really  _ was  _ a short walk to the train tracks - probably no more than ten minutes. Joey always seemed to forget how close everything was in Everlock. Jc lead him along the tracks, hands in his pockets and eyes on the ground. He was starting to get a little curious about what exactly they were doing there at this point.

Jc eventually broke the silence. “I’m gonna ask you a kinda random question, Joey. Have you ever smoked?”

He chuckled at a memory. “Yeah. I tried weed once at that really bad party junior year. I didn’t know what dry heaving was until that moment.”

Jc cringed. “Oof, yeah, I think I remember that party.” He let out a sigh. “Bretman used to come out here and smoke. I’d come with him sometimes until a little while before he skipped town.   


“What made you stop?”   


“I’m trying to quit. That party during Labor Day weekend was the last time I smoked anything.”

“How long has it been before that?”   


Jc shrugged. “Like, three months, I think.”

“Wow, you’re pretty dang clean!”   


“I’m trying, man. Weed isn’t the same as nicotine, but it kinda sucked that I had to start fresh again.”

Joey nodded. “You’ll get back on track, buddy. Don’t worry.”   


“Thanks, man.” After another moment, Jc stopped and held his hand in front of Joey. “Okay, we can hang here for a little bit.”   


“So, what are we doing here?”

He thought for a second that Jc brought him out here to smoke, but that probably wouldn’t have made sense after what they’d just talked about. Jc reached into his pocket and pulled out a little metal figurine. It  looked like a little statue of a fireman made out of wires, nuts and bolts.   


“What’s that?” Joey asked.   


“Metal dude. We sell these things at the shop sometimes. Local artists will make things like this with woodwork, metal, or molded plastic.”   


“Oh, neat.” Joey didn’t really see where he was going with this, but if this was Jc he was talking about, it would probably be cool.

Jc tossed Metal Dude up and down. “So something cool to do is put a metal thing like this on the tracks, and then you watch the trains go by and they squish ‘em.”

“So, we’re gonna see what happens with Metal Dude over here?”   


“Yep. And don’t worry - I paid for him. The artist’s work was for a good cause.”

“The satisfaction of squishing.”   


Jc smiled. “Hell yeah, man.”

He knelt down and placed Metal Dude along the railing on the tracks. Joey expected him to walk away from them, but he didn’t. Instead, he stepped over the railing and sat down with his back to the patch of grass between the tracks. That was normally  _ super _ illegal and dangerous, but there weren’t any cops or trains around. So Joey figured,  _ what the hell? _ and took a seat next to him.

They both sat there in silence for a moment, staring out into the trees and listening to the wind rustling the grass and leaves. 

“Y’know something dumb I used to do?” Jc said. “I’d come here at night sometimes back in high school and fall asleep between the tracks.”

“Really? Isn’t that, like,  _ really  _ dangerous?”

“I mean, I was always in the grass, so I wasn’t in direct danger. I’d usually get this sort of rush of adrenaline for a bit, then I could sleep once I realized I wasn’t, like,  _ on _ the tracks. You ever have that? Like, when you’re so excited that you go to sleep?”   


“I don’t really know. I mean, I usually have stressful dreams if I’m too keyed up.”

That sounded like more of a riddle to Joey. Like:  _ “What happens when one is so excited that they fall asleep?” _ The only answer he could think of was when someone was so scared that they passed out from fear. Or if someone had a heart attack after a long time of being stressed. Or maybe in one of those cartoons where the character gets so happy and elated about good news, that they faint.   


“Maybe I got it from Roi,” Jc figured.   


“Makes sense,” Joey agreed. “It sounds like something Roi would have done back then.”

“Yeah. I feel like he’s more or less mellowed out nowadays. He still has his moments, but they’re less frequent now that we’re older.” Jc turned his attention back to the trees and continued. “Anyway, sometimes I’d fall asleep for five minutes. Other times, it would be an hour or so.”

“So, like, how does that work? Like, sciencey speaking?”   


“I think it has to do with what happens after the adrenaline hits. Once the excitement is over and nothing is happening anymore, your body lets you relax. It’s one of the best highs in the world, honestly.”

“I think I might still be waiting for that part to happen with me. Like, all the time.”   


“It’ll come, dude. It’ll come,” Jc promised him. He pointed to the left and said, “Like that train there.”

Joey followed his hand to see a freighter was coming their way. He stood up and started to back away from the tracks, but Jc didn’t move that much. Well, he  _ did  _ move his body off the tracks, but he was now lying down. His body was hidden by the grass, but his head was sticking out.  _ Really  _ close to the railing.   


“Uh, Jc-” Joey started.   


“Don’t worry, nothing will happen to me,” he assured him.

“But you’re... you’re like - you’re gonna get hit by something!”

“I won’t get hit by anything. I did this all the time when I was younger. The bottom of the train is too far up and I’m not close enough to the tracks. You just need to stay still.”

Okay, Jc was abnormally chill about this. Well, he was abnormally chill about a  _ lot  _ of things. But the train was getting closer! Joey was worried his head would get turned into a pancake!   


“Is that safe?!” Joey fretted.

“As long as you don’t move.”

Yeah, okay. Jc had fully lost his marbles!   


Then again, if he really did this a lot, and usually while laying down…   


Should he?

Well… what did Joey have to lose anyway?

He eased himself back down so he was lying down like Jc. His body was in the grass, and his head was on the gravel, inches away from the railroad. He would be practically invisible to the oncoming train. After that, it was a waiting game.

He fought the urge to move away as best he could. He was absolutely horrified by the thoughts of  _ What if? _ running amuck in his head. What if this wasn’t as safe as Jc was saying? What if part of the train ran over their heads? What if their heads flew off into the sunset?! What if they died there and were left for the woodland beasts to nibble away, only for their bones to be found?! 

But the tiniest part of him wondered a different kind of  _ What if? _ What if Jc was right? What if he moved and missed out on something? What if he stayed there like Jc wanted and saw something he’d never seen before?

Against all odds, he decided that he trusted his friend more than he feared the unknown.

The rumbling grew louder, and louder, and louder, until the train was upon them. Joey shrieked and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for his head to be thrown into oblivion.

But it didn’t happen.

In fact, nothing happened for a few seconds.

Jc had to scream to be heard. “ _ Open your eyes, man! _ ”

Slowly, Joey did what he said, and what happened next… He had no idea how to describe it.

He was staring up at the cars as they flew past, just over a foot above his face. But the feelings, everything going through his head… There was so _much!_

He felt the wind of the cars on his face and tangling his hair as they flew by at lightning speed. He felt the rumbling of the train in his chest as if it were the beating of his heart. He felt the dizziness that came with the sight of the underside of the cars blurring. He felt the fear and the excitement and the terror and the exhilaration as he and his friend stayed perfectly still, not moving an inch as the train barreled by.

Within moments, the train was gone. But the feeling wasn’t...

Joey pushed himself up when he knew the train was long gone, trying to get the feeling back in his arms. He hadn’t realized how stiff he was when he was lying down.

“That…” he almost didn’t recognize his voice. “That was…”

“Scary?” Jc asked. He sounded a little shaken up himself.

“Incredible...”

Joey tried to piece together what he was feeling at that moment. He was absolutely terrified, but it was the most alive he’d felt in a long time. He was here. Jc was here. They were literal inches from death, but they didn’t let it take them. After everything up to that moment, they were alive. He felt that that had to count for something, right?

Something occurred to Joey. “So… you didn’t fall asleep like that, right?”

“No - I just do that once or twice to get that feeling started. It’s easier to fall asleep that way. Anyway, you wanna check out Metal Dude?”

“Yeah.” He’d almost forgotten that was why they went out there.

Jc lead Joey to where they placed Metal Dude. They both knelt down and tugged him out from the railing. The train really did a number on him! He started off as a perfectly sculpted 3-Dimensional metal dude. Now he looked more like a big, weirdly-shaped coin.

“Woah!” Joey exclaimed. “Metal Dude is all…  _ wow _ .”

“He now represents the human soul.”   


“How?”

“...Good question.”

They both laughed off the leftover adrenaline, and made their way back to town.

As they headed back to the shop, Joey realized how much he hadn’t really  _ known  _ Jc. He had no idea that chill, laid back Jc used to be such an adrenaline junkie. Or at the very least got his adrenaline up like that to help him  _ sleep  _ of all things. He wondered if that was why he was the way he was now? Maybe being doing something a lot as a kid makes you the complete opposite as an adult somehow.

By the time they got back to the shop, Pancho was gone. Joey hung around with Jc and Teala for a bit longer, but he started thinking about something else. On the one hand, there were people like most of his friends, who wanted to get out of Everlock to live their lives. And then there were people like Pancho, who wanted to live their lives in Everlock. One of those groups of people grew up there and knew what it was like. Folks like Pancho didn’t know what it was like to grow up there, but saw what little it still had and wanted to live there anyway.

He wondered what Pancho saw in Everlock that others hadn’t, other than just a nice place and nice people. It was an interesting thing to think about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Hey now, don't try it..._  
>  _Don't you dare try it..._  
>  _Hey now, don't try it at home..._  
>  Seriously though please don't try it-
> 
> Bonus points if you knew who the cat cameo was ;)
> 
> Next time: Back at it again with the dreams...


	16. Astral Train

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song used in this chapter:
> 
> Astral Train, from the Night in the Woods soundtrack - begins at _“ALL ABOOOOOAAAAAARD!”_  
>  I recommend the build-up version here:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzqO7oKTJKI

_Rumbling._ _  
_

_The first noise he heard was rumbling._

_When everything came into focus, Joey could tell he was in another part of some different Everlock from his own. The buildings weren’t changing this time, but the wind was blowing hard. It was almost to the point where it threatened to sweep him away. The ground swayed and shook, as if it would be tugged out from under him._

_“What now?!” he wondered aloud. Was he in the middle of some kind of natural disaster?_

_He heard a voice. It was a man’s voice, nearly drowned in the sound of the winds. It didn’t seem to come from anywhere specifically. It was all around him._

_“ALL ABOOOOOAAAAAARD!”_

_A train… This entire town was a train._

_As a symbol clasped from somewhere else, the violin started playing a fast-paced melody. Joey could feel the speed of the town increasing, and he needed to kneel down to keep from falling over as the world around him moved faster and faster. The wind forced thick clouds of dust into the air, and it must have been carrying some debris with it - he could feel tiny bits of sharp somethings grazing his face and arms._

_He eventually mustered up the strength to push himself back up, and it wasn’t long before the saxophone joined in the ensemble. Its sound added an almost melancholy tone, and he had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that someone (or something) was calling to him. He couldn’t hear any other voices, but he could just_ feel _it._

 _He had to get to them. He_ needed _to get to them._

_“I… I’m coming..!” he cried out._

_He could barely hear the sound of his own voice. But the music, as always, was perfectly clear._

_Joey trudged onward against the wind, having to squint to see and keep himself from getting anything in his eyes. The only way he was able to keep himself steady was to lean far forward against the resisting winds. If it weren’t for that, he probably would’ve fallen on his face._

_He passed under a pair of iron gates leading into a cemetery as the tuba chimed in. He had to squint even more to read the names on the gravestones. Some of them were names he’d recognized from memorials around town: a few miners, a mayor from years ago, a name or two from old stories about the town. But he couldn’t say where the rest of the names came from. In fact, the deeper he pushed through the gravestones, he realized that some of the dates were getting further and further into the future. One of the dates of someone’s death was ten years from that day. Another was as recent as this upcoming Halloween._

_He decided to stop looking at the stones, worried one of the names would be someone he knew. He pushed through the cemetery until he came to an exit, leading to a woods made up of dying trees. He looked up through the branches to see each of the leaves being practically yanked away by the winds. A few of them smacked Joey in the faces as they blew away. The accordion player joined in to play the whole ensemble with the rest of the band, and Joey guessed he was sitting among the trees somewhere._

_He kept pushing himself along. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not, but it seemed to get darker and darker the deeper into the woods he got. He tried to look up at the sky without losing his balance, but any sign of the stars and the moon were obscured by the branches and the dust flying above._

_Joey soon came to the edge of a cliff, with a clearing among the trees so he could get a view of what was beyond the train. He could see he was somewhere up in the mountains. He didn’t know much geography, but he was pretty sure he was looking out at the Rocky Mountains. At least, they_ looked _like the Rockies, but if this was supposed to be Everlock, what was he doing seeing a mountain range that didn’t quite reach California? Or maybe all mountains just looked the same to him? He didn't quite know._

_He leaned outwards to get a better look, holding onto a tree to keep himself from falling over the edge. Upon closer inspection, he could see a few key things that made the mountains stand out. A couple of entrances to mining tunnels sat amongst the trees far away. A system of train tracks were sticking out between two formations, nestled so it was in a bridge above a valley. It looked a bit like one of the bridges Joey’s train crossed to get him back home from college._

_“Maybe that bridge is where the train’s going,” he figured._

_And then it happened._

_The loud GONG! rang in Joey’s ears and the band silenced, signaling him that a giant creature was about to come out from somewhere. The ground shook, and Joey grabbed onto his tree, wrapping both arms around its trunk and holding it tightly._

_Out between the mountains, a form started to descend from the clouds of dust and debris above the bridge. Joey thought at first that it was a giant log, but the log then split into two halves, revealing rows upon rows of jagged fangs. It was an alligator. As it’s piercing red eyes made its way past the clouds, it let out the same blood curdling shriek that Joey was used to hearing in his dreams._

_His first instinct was to cover his ears, but the couldn’t let go of his tree. The wind was picking up, and Joey could feel the world around him moving as fast as a bullet. It kept moving faster and faster until Joey started to worry his body would leave his soul behind. The trees began to lift out of the ground and fly off into the sky. He clung to his tree for his life, but he could feel himself being lifted from the ground. It was almost like he wasn’t just being pushed back - something was_ pulling _him away._

_That was when a sudden jolt sent him flying from the tree and tumbling through the air. He screamed and swung his arms about, trying to grab onto something! But it was all for naught._

_Joey felt himself getting lighter until he wasn’t falling down anymore. Instead, he was flying upwards from the train. He whipped through the darkness as the alligator's shrieks grew quieter and the train shrunk in size._

_The last thing he saw was the train-town flying onward without him before inky black nothingness swallowed him whole._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo it's been a while since I got back to this! I missed it :)
> 
> Next Time: Dinner at Colleen's gets a little too real...


	17. Dinner at Colleen's

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: fights between family and friends
> 
> Song used in this chapter:  
> "This City" by Sam Fischer - Plays in Colleen's bedroom

Joey wasn’t really sure why he hadn’t been to the Ham Panther until a little more than a month after he got home. He just hadn’t really gotten around to it until the next time he and Colleen hung out. She was knocking off early to pick up groceries and invited him to come along. Well… he _asked_ if he could come along. But still, they were hanging out.   


At the grocery store, of all places.   


“Is this, like, something people our age do?” Joey asked as the mystical automatic doors let them inside. “Go to the grocery store to hang out?”

Colleen shook her head and picked out a basket. “Might as well be.”

“Also, was that our old music teacher we saw when we came in?”   


Her eyes traveled back to the entrance. “Oh, yeah! That  _ was _ Mr. Armistead! Looks like he’s a greeter now.”   


“We had a guy like that at my old job back in Durkillsberg. He’s this really nice old man and, like, the only thing I miss about working there.”   


The Ham Panther looked almost exactly like the old Food Donkey, only with sleek white metal on the outside instead of bricks. The inside was also a lot more crowded and less depressing than the last time he set foot in that place. Everything must have been freshly stocked - it certainly  _ smelled  _ like it was. The tones around the store almost made the floors and walls look more blue than white.

Well, The Ham Panther sure wasn’t Fort Luceene, but that place wasn’t even worth going to anymore. At least this store was relatively clean. On the other hand, it put the Food Donkey out of business. Joey thought of Manny and Nikita who took the old frog parts up to New York with them. He wondered what the hell those two were doing right now with their new frog roommate.

Joey followed Colleen as she started wandering towards the aisles.  “So you’re just here to pick up some stuff?” he asked.

“Yep, I don’t really feel like doing the big shop tonight. I’m just gonna pick up some stuff for you, me and my siblings.”   


Joey blinked. She hadn’t really mentioned inviting him coming to dinner. He just thought he was helping her shop.

“Am I coming to dinner?” he asked.   


“I mean, do you want to? I’m sure my brothers and sister will be happy to see you.”

“Yeah, why not!”

It’s been getting so much easier to talk to Colleen lately. Every conversation they had felt so much more natural than they had when Joey first got home. He let himself relax as they browsed the aisles for frozen tater tots, a can of green beans and a tube of biscuits.

Joey eventually gestured around them. “Can you believe this place killed the Food Donkey?”   


“You know no one who works here had anything to do with that, right?”

He raised his arms and exclaimed to the Heavens,  _ “Foooooooood Donkeeeeeyyy!” _   


A mom on the other side of the aisle turned in their direction and hurried her child along. Colleen rolled her eyes. She did a lot of that when Joey said or did pretty much anything. He was starting to wonder if her eyes would fall out if she kept doing that.

“Okay,” she said. “I think we just need a main course and we can go.”   


“What counts as a main course?” Joey asked.   


“We can stop by the meat section real quick and pick something out from there.”   


“Oh, cool! My Dad actually works there now.”

The two of them passed some of the aisles until they got to the bakery section. Joey had to force himself to remember they were on a budget and he couldn’t get raisin bread, even though he really wanted some. And it smelled really good. And it probably tasted-

_ No, Joey,  _ he thought.  _ You can buy raisin bread on your own time! _

Just past the bakery section, the deli was nestled in a corner next to the seafood stand. Strings of sausages lined up the wall, and chunks of beef, pork and ham hung from hooks. Joey’s Dad was standing behind the counter, sporting a green apron with a Ham Panther label over a white button-up shirt.  One thing was for sure: the uniforms here were  _ definitely  _ more stylish than the regular black shirts they made Joey wear under the stupidly bright red aprons at his old job.

Dad looked up from the register and waved at them. “Ahoy there, you two!”   


“Hey, Dad!” Joey exclaimed once they got closer.   


“Hi, Mr. Graceffa,” Colleen said.   


“Colleen! Long time no see!”

She smiled politely. “Yeah. How are you?”

“Can’t complain - worse places on Earth to be! How are you and your siblings?”   


“They’re okay. Rachel’s actually getting her licence soon.”

It always felt odd hearing about how much older his friend’s siblings were. It felt like just the other day, Joey saw Colleen’s little sister running around the house, asking in a tiny voice if she could play with them. Now that little girl was a teenager in the middle of high school. Sometimes it was weird realizing the rest of the world was basically growing up with him.

Dad dusted his hands off. “So, what can I get you two?”   


Colleen turned to Joey. “I think I’ll leave this one to you.”   


“Woah, are you sure?”   


“Go ahead.”   


He thought for a moment, and told Dad, “We would like a breast of your finest chicken, please.”   


“Can’t go wrong with chicken,” Dad commented. “Coming right up!”

“Hey Dad-”   


Dad picked up a chicken breast and said, “No, Joey, you can’t chop any meat.”   


“Crap.”

Colleen shoved his shoulder and rolled her eyes at him again. 

Dad picked up a beautiful golden chicken breast, and stuck it into a plastic bag.  “Why don’t you and your family come by for dinner some time, Colleen? It's been a while since you've been over. I’ll grill us up something nice.”   


“That would be nice - thanks, Mr. Graceffa.”

Joey decided against telling him that Colleen had already been there recently. He didn't need to know how much more embarrassing his son already was. Instead, he just told Dad he'd see him later as they paid for their items, and headed out to Colleen's car.

The Ballinger’s old home wasn’t a mansion or anything, but it was still decently big and nice looking. It was kind of a smaller Queen Anne-style house with a greyish cream paint job, a cute swing on a porch surrounded by a white fence, and a big backyard with a homemade swing set. The apartment complex they lived in now had five brick buildings that were all just barely bigger than her old house. They each had at least six units that Joey could see from the fronts, judging by the balconies with thin, dingy grey bars protecting someone from falling, with hardly any room for much furniture. The stairs they had to travel up were small and cramped, and a fair number of roaches passed by on their way up.

“MTV cribs, eat your heart out,” Joey noted.

Colleen sighed as they came to a stop in front of a door numbered 302. “I know, I know. It’s not really...great. Like, at all. But it’s what we got saddled with.”

She pulled her keys out of her pocket with her free hand, turned it, and shoved the door open. The first thing Joey noticed was that the living room and the kitchen were pretty much the same room, only divided by a counter. He could see a couple of hallways off to the sides, but he could tell they weren’t much wider than the stairs he and Colleen just climbed up. The TV was on, playing some kind of hockey match. Her younger sister Rachel was sitting at the counter doing her homework. Her older brothers Trent and Chris were both doing something on their computers at the kitchen table.

_ “I’m hoooome!” _ Colleen sang in an operatic voice.

“Hey, Colleen,” Chris said, looking up from the screen. “Joey! It’s been a while.”

Rachel tilted her head. “Aren’t you supposed to be at school?”

Joey shrugged. “I kinda dropped out. Long story.”

“He’s gonna be having dinner with us,” Colleen explained. “Is that alright?”   


“Of course,” Trent said with a grin. “You’re always welcome here, Joey.”

Okay, so far so good.

“Hey, why don’t I help with dinner?” Joey offered. “I feel bad about just letting you guys do all the work.”

Colleen raised an eyebrow. “You’re not gonna set anything on fire to make it cook faster, are you?”   


Joey folded his arms. “Have some faith in me, Ballinger!”

Chris laughed. “That’s really nice of you, Joey. We’d really appreciate the help if you’re up for it.”

In all honesty, Joey was worried for a hot second that he’d mess up dinner somehow. Even after he, Colleen and Chris were done cooking and everyone sat down at the table, he was expecting the food to taste like garbage left out in a pile in the middle of July. When he took his first bite though, it wasn’t bad. Actually, it was really good! The chicken was inexplicably juicy, the green beans were perfectly seasoned, and the tater tots were crisped to perfection!

_ Huh… _ Joey thought.  _ All those years of watching Nicole cook must have paid off! _

Totally what he was expecting. Yep! Yessiree bob!

“Hey,” Trent said, “this is pretty good.”

“Joey, this is, like,  _ alarmingly  _ good,” Colleen commented.

“Thank you, thank you,” he said.

Rachel piped up. “He should cook for us every night.”

“I don’t think so,” Colleen said. “We’d die of some sort of sugar shock.”

“That’s not true!” Joey countered. “I can also scramble eggs and cook those cinnamon rolls from a tube.”

“We can’t have breakfast for every meal,” Chris said.   


Trent shook his head. “Don’t be so sure about that. I’d eat breakfast, breakfast and breakfast if I could.”   


“I can probably do a salad, too,” Joey added.

“We’re saved!” Chris cheered jokingly.   


Colleen laughed, then asked, “So, all the bills are done, right?”   


Chris nodded. “Yep. We’re all paid up until the fifteenth next month.”

“Okay, good. Trent, Rachel, you sorted out the albums in the shop today, right?”   


“Yes, Mom,” Rachel replied.   


“Everything’s in its place,” Trent confirmed.

“By the way, Colleen,” Chris added, “where was that stuff you needed me to sign?”   


“Don’t worry about it,” she answered. “I already signed them.”   


Chris looked up, surprised. “You did? I’m usually the one who-”   


“Yeah, but you were taking too long. We needed to get it done ASAP, so I did it myself.”   


“Well, why did you remind me of it if you were just gonna do it yourself?”   


“I wasn’t  _ supposed  _ to do it myself. I kept telling  _ you  _ to sign them.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Are we seriously doing this again?”

_ Again? _ Joey thought, shifting in his seat.

Trent raised a hand for calm. “Can we please not argue about this now?”

Colleen asserted, “We wouldn’t  _ be  _ arguing about this if you would learn to stop slacking on bills.”

Well, _that_ certainly took a turn. Joey wasn’t sure if he should leave them to talk, or if it would be rude to get up. All he could bring himself to do was scrunch up like a turtle and pretend to be  _ super  _ focused on his dinner in the hopes that no one would somehow drag him into this.

“Colleen, chill out,” Rachel demanded. “There’s a lot of bills to keep up with.”   


Colleen furrowed her eyebrows at her. “I don’t need you to remind me, Rachel.” Her voice was getting snappy.   


“I know, but-”   


“I  _ don’t _ . We  _ need  _ to make sure we pay these guys on time if we wanna keep the shop. You all heard what those real estate guys were trying to do.”   


Real estate guys? What real estate guys? What were they talking about?   


Chris let out a sigh. “We’re all  _ very  _ familiar with that, Colleen. We’re just as worried as you.”   


“Apparently not, since I’ve had to keep reminding you about due dates the past two months.” She pressed her forehead against the tips of her fingers. “You should all know how important this is by now.”

“Colleen, take a breath, okay?” Trent suggested, placing a hand on her shoulder.   


She shoved his hand away. “Don’t tell me to take a breath, Trent! None of us can afford to screw up right now! What are you all gonna say if we end up losing the shop to those assholes?!”

The table went quiet. Chris took a sip of his water. Trent messed around with his green beans. Rachel stared at her plate. Joey looked over at Colleen, and her face changed into the same expression she was wearing that night after the party.   


“I’m sorry…” Colleen muttered.   


“We know, Colleen...” Chris assured her.   


Joey wanted to say something, but he had no idea what to make of any of that. It almost felt like he shouldn’t have even been at the table to hear that. Maybe he should have gotten up after all...

Colleen picked up her empty plate and stood up. “Joey, why don’t we go hang out in my room?”   


Joey looked down at his clean plate. He hadn’t even realized he’d finished eating.   


“Yeah, cool…” he replied. What else was there to say?

“You guys have a good time,” Chris said.

With that, Joey put his dishes in the sink next to Colleen’s, and followed her down the left hall to her room.   


“Sorry you had to hear that…” Colleen apologized once they were out of earshot.   


“It’s fine.”

It kinda wasn’t, though. Up until now, he was so sure they had their shop under control. That whole thing just made him worried about them. 

Colleen’s room was at the end of the hallway. It wasn’t much - just a small beige room big enough for a bed to nestle in a corner, and a desk facing a single window. She flipped on some fairy lights surrounding the ceiling, and started playing some music on her phone. Her room was a lot smaller than it was back at her family’s house. Maybe it was in part due to the fact that there were still a few boxes laying around. Any clothes that weren’t in boxes or in the closet were hanging from her desk chair, or piled up on a beanbag.   


“Welcome to my humble abode,” she said, spreading her arms out.

“Cozy. I like it.”

“Thanks. I did what I could to make it look nice.”

She plopped down on her bed, laying on her back with her arms behind her head. Joey took a seat near the edge of the bed, resting his back against the wall. They both stared at her ceiling as they listened to the music playing from Colleen’s phone. The first song was “The City” by Sam Pitcher, and as he listened to the lyrics, Joey wondered if she chose that specific song for a reason.

“So,” Joey said, breaking the silence. “Your new room. It’s really…”

“Small?”

“I was gonna say messy.”

She let out a chuckle. “Yeah. Well, my old room was messy too, to be fair. My Mom was usually the one to get on me about my room being a mess.”

Joey nodded. “Moms, amirite?”

“U B rite, U B rite.”

Despite his best efforts, Joey just couldn’t shake the heavy feeling from the dinner table. It probably wasn’t his business, but whatever was going on was really affecting Colleen and her family. He didn’t want to have to see them putting up with this for the rest of their lives. They all deserved better.

“So,” he said, “can I ask a question, Colleen?”

“Spill.”

“What do you and your siblings usually do at the store?”

“Mmm…” Colleen paused to think about that. “I usually run the register and work outside jobs to repair instruments. Rachel and Trent both stock things, take inventory, and take turns working the register when I’m not around. Chris handles administrative stuff, but he mostly does a little of everything. It’s a lot of work for him to take on by himself, so I usually end up helping him with stuff.”   


“So the four of you are basically running this business by yourselves, and you still have to pay bills to other people to keep your family business afloat?”   


“Pretty much,” she said with a sigh. She must not have liked the thought of that either.   


“I just… like…” Joey tried to think of what to say.

“Hm?”   


“I think you shouldn’t.”

“Okay,” she replied, very much not interested.

Joey turned to face her. “I mean, it’s supposed to be  _ your  _ store. I’m just worried if you keep reinforcing it-”

“Is this really the road you wanna go down right now?” Her voice was void of any tone, and her eyes narrowed at him.

Joey blinked. He probably had to keep in mind what he was saying. He didn’t want to make her mad again. Still, the fact that she was fighting with her siblings over these guys in suits demanding her family’s money bothered him.

“I’m saying,” he said, “I’m worried it might be taking a toll on you and your family. A couple of missed payments isn’t the end of the world.”   


“Are you serious right now?” Colleen heaved a heavy sigh. “You want me to lay some reality on you? You know Creek - that guy who’s in the shop sometimes?”   


“Um, no?”   


“You’d know him if you saw him - he’s usually in a suit. So, he works for some big shot real estate company that buys small shops and turns them into corporate-run places, and he’s been trying to buy the shop from my parents for the past couple years. Now that they’re gone, he’s basically been hounding us to sell it to his guys.”

Joey straightened up. “What?”

“Yeah. And the thing is, he’s just gonna end up turning it into some chain restaurant or something! That’s what his people always do with the former family owned businesses they buy. He thinks that because it’s basically a bunch of college-age kids and a teenager running everything, he’s more capable of handling it than we are.”

“Dude, that’s awful!”   


Colleen threw up her hands. “I know! Like, the way he words it basically boils down to, ‘We understand how hard it is for a bunch of  _ children  _ to run a business without their Mommy and Daddy to do everything for them! Let us take this place off your hands! We’ll take better care of it than you  _ kids  _ ever could!’”   


Joey didn’t really understand everything about business and real estate, but Colleen’s family had always worked hard to keep that place up and running! The idea of seeing their music shop as just another thing that would close down and turn into something else was infuriating. And here these douchebags were trying to tell them what to do with their shop! How long had this been going on for? Has she seriously been dealing with these guys this entire time and he hadn't realized it?

Joey tried to put his words together right. “I hear you, Colleen. I'm mad for you! But if you keep letting those guys off the hook-”   


“Off the hook?!”

“You and your family are better than this, Colleen! You’re all, like, badass and shit!”

Crap… that didn’t come out right at all...   


“You…” She sat upright, looking like she was about to tear him limb from limb. “Badass?  _ Badass?! _ My siblings and I living in this shitty apartment isn’t very ‘badass.’ Me sitting in this room isn’t very  _ ‘badass!’ _ ” She groaned and rubbed her temples.  “You are such a shithead sometimes, you know that?”

Joey could feel the warm fuzzy feelings going out the window at this point. Did this girl only invite him over so she could yell at him or something?! He was just trying to help! ...Okay, maybe he could have phrased some things better, but it’s not like he deserved everything she was saying!

“What the hell is your problem?!” he demanded. “I was trying to say something nice here!”

“This might come as a shock to you, Joey, but a lot of the time, people can’t just choose to do whatever exactly it is that  _ you  _ decree to be the right thing. People do what they do because they can’t do anything else.”

“You always have a choice, Colleen!”

“Okay, what is it then? Honestly, tell me! What is my choice here? Trash my bills and let those guys destroy everything my family built together?” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I am seriously going to punch your goddamn lights out right now… You come into my house and tell me how  _ I’m _ screwing things up, and try and give me some magic solution to make everything better?” Her tone switched to overly-perky. “Oh! But  _ ‘good dinner, Joey!’ _ ”

“None of that is right, is what I’m saying!” Joey exclaimed. “You guys shouldn’t have to put up with all these people treating you like crap! None of the stuff you’re dealing with is right!”

Colleen stood up from her bed and met his eyes. “No, it’s not.  _ Nothing’s  _ right. The whole effing  _ world  _ isn’t right. Like, our friends are off doing God-knows-what at school or their jobs or whatever. Meanwhile,  _ I’m  _ at home making dinner and doing payroll! You know nothing about my life, Joey - you just think you know what I ‘should’ do. And you’re the last person I’d ask for advice on  _ anything _ .”

Ouch. That hurt. Were things really this bad for them? He just wanted to see what he could do to help, and even that was blowing up in his face. He thought the two of them were finally doing better, and now _this._ Was he really that bad of a friend?

“ Okay, okay, I’m sorry, Colleen,” he apologized.

She sat back down on her bed. “Yeah, sure,” she snapped. “You’re sorry.  _ Everyone’s  _ sorry. But you don’t get it.”

“But, like… I thought we were okay! You’re the one who invited me to dinner tonight! We went to the mall, we fixed a piano-”   


“ _ I _ fixed a piano,” she corrected. “And you _asked_ to hang out with me tonight.”   


“Whatever! I thought we were having fun!”   


“Yeah, and that’s all you see those days. I probably work a good four hours by the time you wake up in the morning. And every time you go home after we’re done hanging out, I come back here and help Chris figure out which bills we can afford to skip, and how the hell we’re gonna make the next payroll. This isn’t fun, Joey.”

The two of them just stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Joey had no idea what to say. They weren't having fun? He thought back to all the moments where Colleen was smiling and laughing with him around. They all seemed so genuine for a short while. But now...

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I should go...”

“You should go,” she agreed.

And that was the end of that.

Joey slumped towards the door without so much as a goodbye. He shoved the door open and kicked it shut, only to find that Rachel had been eavesdropping right outside in the hall.

“Wow…” Rachel gasped. “I’m surprised you lasted that long.”   


“Shouldn’t you be in your room or something?”

“You can’t tell me what to-”

From the other side of Colleen’s door, they could hear a sharp,  _ “Rachel! Go to your room!” _

Rachel made some sort of noise that sounded like a,  _ “YEEK-” _ and ran off to her room. Joey took that as his cue to get out of the hall as well. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be around Colleen when she was like this. He just wandered down the hall without another word to find Chris and Trent watching TV. They must have all finished eating by now.

Chris turned his attention over to him. “Everything okay? We could hear you guys from out here...”

Joey sighed. He was still feeling awkward after everything that happened.   


“So, um…” Joey muttered. “About that argument earlier…”

Trent shook his head. “Don’t beat yourself up, Joey. Colleen’s just… really stressed out right now. Maybe we were all just feeling a little extra sensitive today.”   


Chris nodded. “It’s never been easy running the place on our own. Sometimes all that pressure gets the better of everyone, including her.”

Joey folded his arms. “I just wish I could help you guys somehow…”

“She appreciates you being therefor her, Joey,” Trent told him. “It might not be obvious, but she’s glad you’re here.”   


“It doesn’t really feel that way all the time…”   


“I know. Even so, she’s told us about what you guys did while you were hanging out. She probably wouldn’t tell you herself, but she really does like seeing you again.”

Joey wanted to believe that, but it was hard. He really  _ hadn’t  _ known about what Colleen and her siblings were going through. Even if he had known what she really had on her shoulders all this time, this went beyond anything he knew how to fix.

“You want me to drop you at home?” Chris offered.

Joey nodded. After this nightmare of an evening, he wanted nothing more than to bury himself in his bed and sleep tonight off.

Chris was nice enough to wait until Joey got up to his front porch to drive off. The warmth of his Dad’s kitchen was welcome compared to the cold night outside. As usual,  _ Garbo and Malloy _ was playing in the living room, and Dad was sitting at the far end of the couch. He was the only one watching TV tonight, so Joey figured Nicole was in her room. She was certainly being a lot more private than usual lately.

“Hey, Dad,” Joey said as he walked into the living room.   


Dad beamed at him. “Hey, bud! How’s socializing?”   


“Surprisingly tiring sometimes.”

“Yeah, that’s why I don’t do much of it. It was nice seeing you at work tonight, by the way.”

Joey shrugged his jacket off and plopped down on the opposite end of the couch. “I can’t believe I haven’t been there yet.”

“Well, better late than never. Besides, you’re not usually lurking around the Ham Panther.”

“Who’s to say I’m not?”

“Well, the visit was nice anyway.” His face softened a little. “Everything alright?”

Joey sighed. “Colleen and her siblings got into a fight. Then I got into a fight with her. I thought I could help her if I gave her advice, but I think I just made things worse…”

Dad put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Joey. Is there anything I can do?”

“I know I’m gonna regret this… but I think I just wanna watch this dumb show for right now.”

Dad cracked a smile. “Sure thing, kiddo.”

One of the best things about Dad? Whether you wanted to go on an hour-long rant about your problems, or just block them out with mindless TV, he was totally okay with it.

He picked up the remote and turned the volume up as Garbo and Malloy started joking about the stock market. Joey tried to distract himself with Garbo and Malory’s stupidity, but all he could think about was his and Colleen’s fight. He didn’t want to end the night on a sour note between the two of them, even if it was his fault. Against his better judgement, he pulled out his phone and sent her a quick text.

**Joey:** hey colleen. you there?

No response for a moment...

**Colleen:** yep

**Joey:** i’m sorry   
****

**Colleen:** i’m sorry too   
****

**Joey:** i didn’t mean to mess that up so badly

**Colleen:** it’s fine. i’m going to sleep, you later okay?

**Joey:** okay, night

Joey put his phone to sleep and tossed it on the coffee table. He leaned back and rubbed his temples. They said they were sorry to each other, but now he was spiralling into questions like,  _ “Did we really mean it?” “Does she still hate me?” “Am I a horrible person for fighting with her like that?” _

Later that night, when he got to his room, he basically word-and-doodle-vomited in his journal. He drew their dinner from that night. He drew stick figures of the Ballinger siblings. He drew a pair of stick figures of him and Colleen, both with angry faces and yelling at each other. 

He dropped his pencil and held his head in his hands as he felt another headache coming on. They’ve been getting worse lately...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well......... that could've gone better, huh...  
> Next time: The crew reunites and rehearses for their big play, we get a brief lesson about the history of Everlock, and Manny and Nikita bring back an old friend from New York!


End file.
